


28°C

by Minew



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Genderbend, Genderswitch, Major Illness, Medical, Minor Character Death, Multi, Realism, Romance, Sick main character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-01-21 10:10:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21297752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minew/pseuds/Minew
Summary: When Chanyeol's boyfriend falls ill with a mysterious man-made disease and the government doesn't do enough to find the terrorist, he sets out to fight the creator for the cure himself. Fighting by his side is less-than-badass Baekhyun and his wife, military extraordinaire Sookyung.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun & Do Kyungsoo | D.O, Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	1. ONE

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for showing interest in 28°C! That makes me very happy. This story is medical-heavy so here are a couple of terms that are quite important to this story.
> 
> Hypothermia ; A core body temperature below 35°C. Normal core body temperature is around 36,5°C to 37,5°C.  
ECMO ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. A type of life support.  
ICU ; Intensive Care Unit.  
CRP ; C-Reactive Protein. An elevation of C-reactive protein highly suggests the presence of an infection.
> 
> Please note that I have taken fictional liberties throughout this fic (including the medicine in this) although I also tried to stay as realistic as possible. 
> 
> Thank you once again and I hope you enjoy!!

_Man, 47 years old, found unconscious on Cheongpa-ro 85ga-gil by teenagers, cold to the touch, no breathing, CPR started by finder. _

Chanyeol looks at his partner as he climbs into the passenger seat of the ambulance. It doesn’t take more than 30 seconds before they’re on the road, sirens screaming in the afternoon, weaving through the millions of cars driving in Seoul. Joonmyun sighs as he turns off the main road and navigates the smaller roads.

They find a waving teenage girl on the corner of Cheongpa-ro 85-gagil who desperately leads them towards her boyfriend and the man he’s currently trying to resuscitate. Chanyeol is first on the street, closely followed by Joonmyun and the stretcher. The man has a low heart rate and a low blood pressure and he’s cold to the touch. It doesn’t take the two of them long to get him on the stretcher and into the ambulance, covered in warm blankets.

Chanyeol draws 2 mg of adrenaline while Joonmyun calls the doctor at the hospital nearby to report the patient. The patient is given oxygen and the adrenaline and monitored all the way to the hospital, still unconscious and incredibly cold. Without any history it’s hard to say whether or not he’s a drunk who got caught in the winter cold overnight.

It takes 15 minutes to arrive to the hospital because of traffic jams but eventually they hand the patient over to competent hands in the ER.

Joonmyun pats his shoulder comfortingly as if Chanyeol needs the consolation, but Chanyeol has been a paramedic for years and he understands what happens. Drunk people on the street don’t affect him nearly as much as traffic accidents involving children.

It’s dusk when Chanyeol gets off of work, the sun setting behind the large high-rise building. He stretches his arms above his head, cracks his neck to get rid of the muscle tension before he gets in his car to drive home. He listens to Deux on the way home like always, nostalgia getting the best of him.

The apartment block is not very impressive even though it’s located in Gangnam, but the underground parking garage is secure and the neighborhood around the block is safe so Chanyeol has no complaints. Chanyeol leans against the wall as the small elevator brings him to the 3rd floor and his body is tired when he fumbles with the keypad and locks himself into the apartment. There’s a smell of fried chicken wafting from the kitchen and the sound of feet in slippers walking towards him.

A smile slips on his lips before he even sees the other man, but the sight has Chanyeol’s body waking up a bit. He feels less tired. His boyfriend, Minseok, is smaller than him, slimmer than him and looks a good deal cuter than him, at least according to Chanyeol.

“Welcome home, my everyday hero,” Minseok says and stretches onto his toes to peck Chanyeol’s smile. “I ordered chicken from Kyochon; I couldn’t be bothered to cook.”

“You’re the best,” Chanyeol answers and leans against the wall so he can take off his shoes and shed his jacket. Minseok disappears back into the kitchen to continue whatever he was doing before Chanyeol arrived home. Chanyeol foregoes his slippers and follows Minseok.

Together they bring the chicken and a bottle of coke from the kitchen to the living room and sink onto the couch. Chanyeol grabs the blanket and Minseok snuggles up against his chest. Eating snuggled up like this is a little messy but neither of them care much.

“We’re so close to a breakthrough,” Minseok says and sucks excess fat off his fingers. “Junghwa accidentally found a reaction that didn’t seem as dangerous as the others we’ve been working with.”

Chanyeol chuckles.

“Junghwa seems to be good at the accidental discoveries,” he says and Minseok shrugs a little and takes another piece of chicken.

“As long as she doesn’t blow up the lab while experimenting, it’s okay.”

He has a smile on his face. Minseok has always been fond of his coworkers, especially the younger but brilliant Junghwa who, on more than one occasion, has stumbled upon something useful by accident. Chanyeol doesn’t know Junghwa outside of what Minseok has told him, but she seems like a sweet girl albeit a bit clumsy.

“That’s true,” he says and wraps a hand around Minseok’s stomach, stopping him from reaching out towards his glass. He burrows his face in Minseok’s neck and closes his eyes as he inhales deeply. Minseok smells of faint chemicals and his shampoo like always, the smell that is so familiar and so comforting to Chanyeol.

They stay like that for a few seconds before Chanyeol lets go and leans back again.

“Something happened at work you need to talk about?” Minseok asks worried, glass forgotten as he turns around and looks Chanyeol in the eye. Chanyeol sends him a smile and shakes his head.

“Can a man not miss his boyfriend?” he asks cheekily and Minseok sighs and turns around in his hold, his focus back on the food. They sit like that, eating slowly, enjoying each other’s company.

When they’re done eating, they grab their books from the coffee table. Chanyeol is reading sappy romance novels while Minseok is buried in his chemistry books and new research papers that can help his own research. It has always been like that; Chanyeol relaxing with getting as far away from his work as possible and Minseok delving deeper into his passion.

Chanyeol falls asleep first, head resting on the backrest of the couch in an awkward position. Minseok doesn’t notice his boyfriend has fallen asleep until he hears the light snores. He doesn’t know what time it is, but it’s not uncommon for him to get lost in his work and forget everything around him. It’s also not uncommon for Chanyeol to fall asleep around 9 PM if he has had an exhausting day. He finishes the research paper he’s reading before he grabs his phone to check the time and wake up his snoring boyfriend.

Chanyeol is groggy when he wakes up and it doesn’t take long before he’s in bed, snuggling under the blue satin sheets that Minseok’s mother gifted them when they moved in together. Minseok’s body heat envelopes him as the smaller man crawls under the covers with him and rests against his back.

\---

The first thing Chanyeol hears when he wakes up is the sound of rain slamming against the bedroom window. Then he notices the chill from where Minseok is no longer pressed against his back. Chanyeol keeps his eyes closed, hoping he can go back to sleep, but it doesn’t work like that.

It’s 8.30 AM according to the alarm clock on Minseok’s nightstand. Minseok went to work around 8 and Chanyeol has the day to himself until his shift begins at 3 PM. With lazy hands he reaches towards his phone, only to realize that it’s not on the nightstand. With a sigh, he rolls onto his back and stares at the ceiling.

The rain is still slamming against the window and a low rumble sounds in the far-off distance. What a great way to start a new day. It takes a few minutes of not doing anything before Chanyeol gets up. His reflection in the bathroom mirror shows pillow lines on his left cheek, brown hair sticking in every direction and a pout on his lips. The ceiling lamp suddenly quits, casting his morning look in shadows and Chanyeol sighs.

It wasn’t a secret to either of the two men that the light bulb was old and about to give up. He runs a hand through his hair in the darkness before he leaves the bathroom, back into the bedroom and flops back on their covers.

Chanyeol’s morning routine consists of brewing the strongest cup of coffee, eating a piece of fruit for breakfast and reading the newspaper. If anyone had told his mother that he would be semi-healthy as an adult, she would’ve laughed until she cried.

The rain keeps pummeling down joined by thunder in the distance. The streets are full of colorful umbrellas and cars going in every direction and in the distance is the sound of a siren traveling through the wind. It’s a new day in Seoul, one of gloominess and busy people like every other day in winter.

It’s a silent shift, when Chanyeol gets to work at 3 PM. Joonmyun is sitting on the recliner, playing some game on his cell phone. Luhan is making a cup of coffee, neon-colored jacket slung over his shoulder and wet hair dripping onto his forehead. He must’ve been out mere minutes ago. Their first alarm comes 45 minutes later, an assumed heart attack, CPR has been started by the patient’s son, who found him unconscious. It’s unclear for how long the patient has been in cardiac arrest, but as soon as they arrive to the scene, it’s obvious the man on the floor is dead.

It takes quite some brute force to drag the son away from his father, but there’s no help to be given. He’s ice cold to the touch and in asystole. It’s Joonmyun’s job to handle the family and so, Chanyeol loads the patient onto the stretcher, covers his face and body with a sheet and loads him into the ambulance.

They drive back in silence. It’s always a weird loss when they return to the hospital with someone so clearly dead. They don’t get a lot of time to think, however, before the alarm sounds again and they’re on the way to a child seizing in her mother’s arms.

Exhaustion is a friend of Chanyeol’s and so is Byun Baekhyun. Said Baekhyun is standing in front of the hospital when Chanyeol gets off his shift. They always go out for dinner Thursdays, ever since their college days. It’s to catch up, is Baekhyun’s excuse. Sometimes Chanyeol doesn’t mind, other times he’s too tired, but he appreciates his best friend and usually leaves for home in a better mood. So, he’s not one to complain.

“It’s been raining all day!” says Baekhyun as they walk towards Chanyeol’s car. Baekhyun usually rides public transport to and from the university where he teaches mathematics, so his wife, Sookyung, can have the car, which means Chanyeol is the one driving them to their dinner place.

“I know,” Chanyeol responds, voice a little hoarse with exhaustion. “People keep slipping and fracturing their hips.”

It’s a joke. Not a very good one, but a joke nonetheless. It comes with the profession. Baekhyun understands. He laughs dutifully like a best friend is supposed to and gets into the car. It’s still raining lightly so when Chanyeol’s inside the car, he runs his hands over his face to get the water off and turns on the ignition.

“You look tired. Do you want me to drive?” Baekhyun asks, worry clouding his voice. Chanyeol shakes his head.

“No, it’s all good. Just looking forward to weekend, is all.”

They agree on that.

The drive towards the restaurant is full of Baekhyun talking. He tells Chanyeol about starting new classes after January exams and Sookyungs promotion to brigadier general and their plans on starting a family and Chanyeol listens like a good best friend. It’s a small, quaint restaurant in the middle of Mapo-gu, hidden away from the main streets. The walls are wooden, the scent of food wafting from the kitchen and the woman who greets them in the door is elderly and homely. The soft music playing from the speakers makes it all even more homely. It helps that the food is beyond delicious. They have eaten here before on Sookyungs suggestion and both fell in love with the food.

Baekhyun is still talking like always, but Chanyeol is starting to liven up, his exhaustion from work slowly subsiding. He forgets dying people, fractured bones and seizing children as the evening goes by.

“I can’t believe you still haven’t proposed to Minseok,” Baekhyun accuses spontaneously and Chanyeol’s mouth drops open in surprise, a piece of tteokbokki falling onto his plate. If Baekhyun is disgusted with the half-chewed food, he doesn’t show.

“You know we can’t get married,” he mumbles. Chanyeol and Minseok have been together for 6 years, after they finished college at ages 23 and 24. Minseok went on to get his Ph.D. in chemistry and Chanyeol started working as a paramedic. They were lucky to have mostly supportive backgrounds and friends who were happy for them, but society in general still don't like gay couples and it’s still illegal to get married. A proposal would only be for show and Chanyeol doesn’t think he wants to propose when he knows the end-result is going to be no different from how they are now. Not even a slight change in titles.

“You can move to the States,” Baekhyun says matter-of-factly and Chanyeol, now done being surprised and sad, raises an eyebrow in confusion.

“Do you want to get rid of us?” he asks incredulously. Baekhyun laughs and shakes his head, piece of meat on his chopsticks wobbling dangerously.

“Of course not! But I want you to be happy and you’ve been together for 6 years already.”

Chanyeol sighs a little and takes another bite of his food.

“We don’t have to be married to be happy, Baek. It’s fine. Maybe I’ll convince him to host a large party for our 10th anniversary.”

This time it’s Baekhyun who raises his eyebrow in surprise.

“I’m betting on that not happening. It’s going to be a damn miracle if you convince him to host a big party.”

“Maybe I’m the miracle you didn’t know existed,” Chanyeol says with a slight smirk. “Maybe I can convince my boyfriend to host a big party unlike a certain someone who never got his dream wedding.”

It’s a slight jab at Baekhyun and Sookyungs wedding that wasn’t as grand as Baekhyun had hoped it would be. Baekhyun seems comically offended, before he shrugs the insult off.

“I got the girl, sometimes you gotta compromise. I’m still betting on you not being able to convince Minseok.”

The two men shake hands over the table to make the bet legitimate.

\---

Friday is date night. It’s a tradition particularly Chanyeol is in favor of. To keep romance alive and the everyday a little away, he has sworn his Friday evenings to his boyfriend. Minseok thinks it’s a little silly to keep it up but he indulges and is usually happy at the end of the night. Chanyeol has had far too many colleagues end up in bitter marriages because they didn’t manage to keep romance alive and he’s very determined not to end up the same. Love is apparently not enough for most couples.

He’s in the bathroom, letting his brush run through his damp hair. The scent of his cologne hangs slightly in the air and the edges of the mirror is still fogged from his shower. Minseok is in the kitchen, probably looking through the cupboards to find the scissors to cut the label off of his shirt. He showered first, likes being in control and on time.

Chanyeol doesn’t mind showering last. He has always been a little more carefree, a little more spontaneous and he doesn’t put a start time on their date. Friends on both sides have always questioned why they’d dress up to go on a date when they lived together and spent every minute at home together. Chanyeol has tried to explain but has failed miserably every time so when he gets the question these days, he shrugs and says ‘because I love him’. And Chanyeol really does love Minseok.

He grabs the silk shirt that’s carefully placed over the sink and shrugs it on. He buttons it up when he leaves the bathroom to find his boyfriend staring at the hallway mirror.

Minseok is trying to fix a stubborn tuft of hair that refuses to lie down and he’s purses his lips in concentration. Chanyeol chuckles at the sight of him, which has Minseok sending glares his way. He only receives a kiss on his pursed lips in response. Minseok withdraws from their kiss, glare no longer in his eyes.

“Ready?” he asks. Chanyeol embraces him from behind, rests his cheek against Minseok’s neck and takes a deep breath. Minseok smells of his favorite cologne and the scent of himself, hidden underneath. It’s delicious and comforting. Minseok laughs as Chanyeol’s breath tickles him and he moves away from his boyfriend and sends him a smile.

“The jellyfishes are going to be jealous,” he chuckles and Chanyeol snorts with unattractive laughter.

“Right,” he says and reaches out towards his trench coat on the hanger behind him. Minseok takes his own as well and throws his scarf around his neck, covering half his face in the process. Chanyeol shakes his head fondly and reaches out to pull it down enough to uncover his mouth and press another kiss to his lips.

They take the subway three stops from Gangnam to Samseong. People are staring at their phones, not caring about the two well-dressed men. Chanyeol and Minseok have perfected the art of dating in public without being too affectionate, too obvious. They enter the COEX mall, looking for their end destination.

They have been here before but they like coming back. It reminds Chanyeol of a time when he was madly in love as it was one of their first date spots. Minseok likes going back to the serenity of it all, the memories and the pure insecure love shared between in the first couple of months. People are talking loudly around them. Chanyeol puts his hand on the small of Minseok’s back to gently guide him ahead, towards the aquarium. Minseok doesn’t react but keeps going forward.

It’s 6 PM and they only have three hours before the aquarium closes. It’s their preferred time to be there. Gone are the school classes and the families with screaming children. Left is the serenity and beauty of the ocean and occasionally free spots in the dark of the underwater tunnel where they can steal a kiss or two without being seen and scrutinized.

Chanyeol pays for their entrance tickets and the girl who checks them sends them a nervous glance as if she sees something behind the façade but doesn’t dare mention it. They ignore it.

When they’re finally around fish and sea plants Chanyeol relaxes visibly. Minseok sends him a smile and reaches out to gently touch his knuckles. They walk through the first part of the exhibit, stops and stares at the small fish and the beautiful rendering of the Korean rivers before they move on.

Chanyeol stares at the glass exhibits trying to locate the tarantulas amongst the LEGO-built housing when something slimy touches his cheek. He jumps back in surprise with a loud squeak and Minseok laughs out loud, beautiful and joyful, while wiping his wet hands in his pants. Chanyeol glares at him but soon softens into a smile. Minseok leans against him and points to the corner of the glass enclosure to point out the tarantula.

They stick their fingers in through the small holes in the fake bathtub to let the cleaner fish eat the dead skin off of their fingers, giggling in the process.

The exhibits darken a little after that and with no one around them, Chanyeol reaches out to lightly grab Minseok’s fingers. They’re barely interlinked but it feels right, feels so perfect.

Minseok lets go as they walk towards the rays and he leans over the aquarium only to get splashed when a ray waves at him near the edge. Chanyeol doubles over in laughter at his boyfriend that sputters. The small reef sharks are swimming in circles, and they lean down to look through the glass. They don’t get up before they hear another couple talk behind them.

Walking through the aquarium is peaceful as always. No matter how many times they come, they’re still just as fascinated as ever when they reach the large Ocean Kingdom exhibit.

The large sand tiger shark is drifting slowly through the water, looking regal. Sting rays are gliding through the water around the sharks. Minseok drags Chanyeol to the benches and sits down. They spend 20 minutes in front of the Ocean Kingdom exhibit, drifting away in the beauty of it all. Minseok rests his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder but continues to look at the water in front of them. It takes everything Chanyeol has to not lean down and kiss him.

When they finally do move on, they’re walking hand in hand, Minseok walking in front, gently pulling Chanyeol along with him. Minseok jabs at Chanyeol while they’re looking at the manatees and Chanyeol lets him, knows that he will get revenge when they enter the Garden of Jellyfish exhibition.

There is silent around them when they get on the conveyer belt through the Deep Blue Sea Tunnel. Looking up and around them with the water shining it’s blue light on them, Minseok rests his head against Chanyeol’s chest and sighs happily. Chanyeol can’t stop himself when he steps off of the conveyer belt and pulls Minseok with him to the darkest corner. Making sure they’re alone, he leans down and kisses Minseok’s lips. It’s soft and light but it fills his chest with love.

Minseok smiles when he pulls away and gently taps Chanyeol’s lower lip before he returns to the conveyor belt. They let it take them through the deep blue ocean and watches the rays and sharks above them. Chanyeol points out the small blue jellyfish and proudly announces Minseok must know exactly how it must feel to be this tiny and Minseok hits his chest and pulls him quickly through.

They watch the penguins have fun, laughing at stupid anecdotes and stories and assigns every penguin to one of their human friends depending on its behavior.

When they leave the aquarium, Chanyeol mostly just wants to head home and kiss his boyfriend forever, but Minseok isn’t having any of that. He pulls Chanyeol through COEX mall to find a restaurant. He finds what he’s looking for and they request a table in a corner. Sitting for themselves they order food and leans back in the chairs. Their conversations range from everyday topics to their experiences at the aquarium, deliberately ignoring any kind of topic that could allude to their relationship. The food is amazing, and they don’t leave the mall until it’s 11.30 PM.

Minseok suggests walking back home instead of the subway and Chanyeol pouts, unhappy about walking in the cold. It has Minseok laughing, slowly pulling off his scarf and gently rising on his toes to put it around Chanyeol.

Walking home in the late evening with Minseok is only making Chanyeol more excited to get back to the comforts of their apartment and kissing him. He wants to grab his hand, intertwine their fingers and forget the world around them exists but he can’t do that. Minseok has popped the collar on his jacket to keep the cold away without his scarf. They’re halfway home when Chanyeol takes pity on him and hands it back.

“Thanks for today,” Minseok says when they enter their apartment and Chanyeol raises an eyebrow as he turns around to look at him.

“The evening isn’t over,” he answers and wiggles an eyebrow. Minseok laughs and hits Chanyeol with his scarf. Chanyeol isn’t fazed, though. Instead he sheds his trench coat and corners Minseok against the door. Minseok is still chuckling and his eyes shrink into the most beautiful crescents when he’s laughing and Chanyeol falls in love all over again.

He leans down and catches Minseok’s smiling lips with his own, hands leaving the door to hold his boyfriend. Minseok leans into the touch, deepens the kiss and closes his eyes. It’s passionate and deep. Minseok runs his hands up Chanyeol’s back and reaches his hair. Chanyeol leans back slightly, only enough to let go of Minseok’s lips.

“I love you,” he whispers and Minseok shakes his head in disbelief at the interruption of their kiss. He doesn’t answer with words but the way he tugs on Chanyeol’s hair and kisses him in response is enough to know that he loves him as well.

They wake up Saturday morning, naked and pressed together. Minseok lets his fingers run over Chanyeol’s chest in a mindless pattern, up and down, before he rests his hand just above his heart. Chanyeol smiles and tries to cuddle closer. Love is all around them, in the memories of yesterday evening, in the touches and the smiles. Minseok looks at him with morning hair and Chanyeol smiles impossibly brighter. The smile only leaves when it’s replaced by Minseok’s lips in a sweet kiss that soon evolves into morning fun.

Chanyeol doesn’t have work Saturday. Instead they stay in, sending kisses through the air and drinking well-made coffee. Minseok skips on his research so he can tease Chanyeol and Chanyeol doesn’t mind one bit as long as he gets to kiss the other in the end. Minseok suggests they clean and Chanyeol vehemently denies that idea.

Instead they agree to take a small walk, soak up the last of winter before spring inevitably takes over. In the evening they cook shabu shabu and puts on a movie.

\---

Chanyeol returns from his Sunday evening shift a little later than usual because an emergency right at the end of his shift. He expects Minseok to be reading on the couch. Instead he finds his boyfriend cuddled up under what looks to be 3 blankets and their duvet, still shivering slightly in his sleep. Next to the bed stands a bucket on a towel, in case nausea gets too much and he has to vomit.

Chanyeol silently sits down on the bed, slowly and carefully caressing Minseok’s side. It doesn’t wake him up but with clear signs his boyfriend is sick, Chanyeol doesn’t want to wake him up. A soft palm to Minseok’s forehead denies fever and Chanyeol leans over to press his lips to his cheek in a soft kiss.

Then he gets off the bed, brews a cup of coffee and sits down on the couch to finish his book before going to bed.

He wakes up, groggy and confused, to the sound of water running. Looking around he spots a figure of a person in the corner, back turned towards him. Chanyeol rubs his eyes and turns around in bed as the sound stops.

“What are you doing, babe?”

His voice is rough and clouded with sleep. Minseok turns around to look towards Chanyeol and he looks almost surprised to not be alone.

“I … don’t know?”

He’s obviously struggling with the strings on his pajama pants, fingers not working the way they’re supposed to. The stench of urine slowly starts overtaking the room. Something’s wrong. Chanyeol sits up in bed and reaches a hand out towards Minseok.

When Minseok doesn’t react, looking kind of lost in front of the closet, Chanyeol gets out of bed. His skin is cold to the touch and he reacts a few seconds too late for it to be normal.

“Go back to bed,” Chanyeol says, voice more alert.

“No, I …” Minseok starts but the rest of his sentence is slurred and unintelligible. This is so wrong. Chanyeol guides Minseok back to bed before he turns on the night light and reaches up into the closet to get his first aid kit. Minseok’s temperature is 30°C. It makes so little sense to Chanyeol that he stares at the number before it disappears on the thermometer. Maybe it’s broken. Why would Minseok be suffering hypothermia while inside, covered in clothes and blankets?

He discards the temperature and grabs his blood pressure machine and wraps the cuff around Minseok’s upper arm. Minseok seems to be even more confused than usually. Chanyeol notes the symptom in the back of his mind. His blood pressure is low. Listening to his breathing is difficult as his respiration rate is low and Chanyeol decides right away to call 119 for an ambulance.

It’s rare for Chanyeol to be on the other side and it freaks him out. He tries to stay calm, but calmness in the face of losing the love of his life is difficult. The blood pressure gets lower and lower and Minseok is barely conscious by now.

“Please, please, please, please,” he’s begging, unaware of what exactly he’s begging for. What is going on? Nothing makes sense as Chanyeol, in spite of everything, takes Minseok’s temperature again and sees the number stop at 29,6°C.

The hard knock on the door is a welcome distraction and Chanyeol almost sprints to the hall to open the door for the paramedics. Luhan greets him on the other side but there’s too much panic running through Chanyeol for pleasantries.

“Blood pressure 79/55, respiratory rate 10, heart rate 38. Temperature 29,6 last time I checked. I don’t understand what’s going on!”

Chanyeol is rambling. It’s a defense mechanism. Every number he’s saying out loud makes it all seem a little less real. It distances Minseok to refer to him as a patient, protecting Chanyeol’s sanity. Luhan’s findings are only more disturbing, the temperature dropping rapidly along with the heart rate.

“We need to get going – NOW!” he calls to his partner, a woman Chanyeol doesn’t recognize. It doesn’t matter. They have to go. It takes no time to load Minseok onto the stretcher and Chanyeol dissociates a little. He watches it all happening before him, his boyfriend being whisked away by trained professionals, trying to save his life.

It’s not until Luhan grabs his bicep hard that Chanyeol wakes up and realizes this is the reality.

“Want to ride with us?” he asks and Chanyeol nods dumbly. He doesn’t trust himself to drive in a state of panic and worry. Luhan guides him to the ambulance and jumps in the back while the female paramedic opens the passenger door for Chanyeol. Off they go, sirens blaring in the dark of night, racing against time as Minseok’s temperature keeps dropping without explanation.


	2. TWO

The hospital smells worse tonight. Where Chanyeol usually sees hope and love, tonight all he sees are death and injury. The ER is full of smaller injuries; a child with a pearl up his nose, a guy that looks like he smashed his hand into a wall and fractured it, a woman with a sprained ankle. Chanyeol is pacing up and down with worry, nausea setting in every time he tries to sit down. 

The nurse at the reception is looking at him with worry but he doesn’t care. He can’t care. The only thing that’s on his mind is Minseok. 

Chanyeol doesn’t notice a pair of newcomers in the ER until said newcomers grab his wrists and leads him to a chair. Baekhyun is standing in front of him, worry written all over his face and Sookyung is standing next to him, hand firmly on Chanyeol’s shoulder to prevent him from standing up and start his pacing again. 

“Is he alright?” Baekhyun asks and someone in the room, possibly Sookyung, sighs out loud. 

“We’re here for you,” she says and subtly disregards Baekhyun’s question. To her, it’s more important that Chanyeol knows they’re there in the midst of distress. But Chanyeol knows nothing and when the fact really registers, he feels his body shivering, tears threatening to spill. 

Baekhyun promptly sits down beside him, hands wrapped around Chanyeol’s tall body, his face buried in his chest. Sookyung sits down as well, hands slowly caressing his back soothingly to deliver the emotions she doesn’t like saying out loud. They’re here for him, for Minseok, for them. 

Time ticks by slowly. Worry and tears become anger and frustration. When there’re no more tears to cry and no more anger to vent, Chanyeol deflates into a state of numbness. There are still no words from the doctors. 

Sookyung is drinking her second cup of coffee, very unlike her, and Baekhyun is almost falling asleep on Chanyeol’s shoulder. The sun is peaking through the windows, illuminating the morning sky in oranges and reds and the patients in the ER are slowly replaced by new patients. Drunken men found passed out on the streets swear to all hell and back when the doctors suture their wounds and children are crying from infections and fevers. Chanyeol stares at nothing in particular, doesn’t feel like he’s actually seeing. He’s just here, waiting for news that doesn’t seem to come. 

“Park Chanyeol?” a loud voice booms in the ER, surprising all three of them. Chanyeol is on his feet so fast that Baekhyun falls face flat onto his chair. Sookyung is by Chanyeol’s side immediately. 

“I’m his sister,” she says when the doctor gives her a strange look. Considering that Chanyeol is taller than average and Sookyung is shorter than average and they look nothing alike it’s a pretty obvious lie, but the doctor doesn’t question them further. He leads them into a small room, Baekhyun scrambling after them awkwardly. 

“You’re Kim Minseok’s bo… partner?” the doctor asks, eyes squinted a bit as if it hurts him to say the word boyfriend. 

“His boyfriend, yes.” So Chanyeol does it for him. He’s not afraid of homophobia right now, he’s not really afraid of anything. Except the words ‘Minseok has died’. He’s terrified of those. 

“We’ve transferred Minseok to the ICU. His core temperature stayed stagnant on 28°C but no matter how aggressively we treat his hypothermia, it doesn’t seem to work. We’ve put him on life support to minimize possibility of organ failure.” 

Chanyeol stops functioning. His boyfriend, love of his life, is currently on life support to sustain his organs from the severe hypothermia he’s experiencing for no good reason. 

“What are your plans, other than life support?” Sookyung asks, apparently able to ask the smart questions. Chanyeol is her forever thankful. 

“We’re going to continue aggressive treatment, while trying to find the root of his hypothermia. Do you have any idea what might’ve caused it?” 

There’s silent for a few seconds in the little room; then Chanyeol shakes his head. 

“He wasn’t sick the day before,” he whispers, voice strangely unstable like he’s about to cry again. “When I came home yesterday, he was slightly shivering under some blankets and our duvet. I assumed it was a fever.” 

There’s another pause, then Chanyeol asks “Can I go see him?” 

The tension in the room is palpable until the doctor nods and leads them towards the ICU. There, in a room of white walls and grey floors, on a white bed covered with heated blankets and duvets, IV lines going from large drop bags in heated containers into his veins, lies Minseok. In the corner is an ECMO-machine humming silently, making sure he stays alive. He’s pale, dark hair a stark contrast to the white skin and his eyes are closed, black eyelashes resting on white cheeks. 

Chanyeol wants to cry again, wants to kiss him better, but something is holding him back. His feet feel like lead when he walks closer and gently strokes the cold cheek with the back of his hand. 6 years of love is laying in front of him, cold and still and it hurts to think this might be it. It feels like his heart is breaking into a million tiny pieces, forced apart by the stillness of his boyfriend. A warm hand is placed on his shoulder and Chanyeol chokes up. They cannot convince him to leave, however. 

When Baekhyun and Sookyung leave, Chanyeol stays seated in the chair next to Minseok’s bed. The nurses bring him sandwiches and blankets, but Chanyeol never lets go of Minseok’s cold hands. Their fingers are intertwined, an odd hope that Chanyeol can bring back warmth. He falls asleep in the chair and a nurse gently places a pillow under his head. 

Chanyeol wakes up to the sound of hushed voices, machines beeping and phones ringing. He has a slight headache and a sore neck from an awkward sleeping position. He’s a bit confused until everything hits. 

“Why is it elevated? This is common hypothermia,” a hushed voice whispers and Chanyeol’s ears automatically tune into the conversation. He doesn’t get the answer because the door to the room is shut closed, but the few words he did hear strike something in him. Instead of looking for answers, however, he turns around in the chair and looks at Minseok, still pale on the bed, skin too cold. He strokes his cheek, lets his hand fall through the hair on his forehead and leans down to press a kiss to the top of his head. 

“Please wake up,” Chanyeol whispers. “I love you.” 

Minseok doesn’t respond. The heart monitor is beeping steadily along with the ECMO-machine’s humming and Chanyeol wishes there was something, anything, he could do. He’s staring at his boyfriend, lips thinning as he realizes he could lose him any second. He might be stable with modern medicine now, but there are no promises. He doesn’t want to cry anymore, doesn’t want to feel the immense sorrow of something that hasn’t happened yet. 

A nurse opens the door and Chanyeol jumps slightly in the chair, surprised by the sudden noise. 

“Oh, I didn’t mean to wake you up,” she says and sends him a smile while she notes Minseok’s vital signs onto a tablet. She checks the IV-bags and replaces empty ones. She removes the blankets, now cold, and replaces them with pre-heated ones, continuing normal hypothermia treatment. 

“Do you need anything? A sandwich? A cup of coffee?” 

Chanyeol considers for a few seconds when a yawn interrupts him. 

“Coffee,” he says sheepishly, and she chuckles.

“I’ll be right back.” 

With those words, she’s gone. It doesn’t take long for her to return with a cup of coffee for Chanyeol, followed by the doctor who’s holding another tablet. 

The doctor checks Minseok as well, notes his heart rate and checks for any change in condition. He talks to the nurse, orders a bag of IV pre-heated glucose solution to make sure his blood sugar levels doesn’t drop too suddenly and when he’s about to leave again, Chanyeol remembers the sentence he overheard and decides to ask for answers. Now is as good a time as any and may even help distract him from the feeling of fear residing permanently in his heart. 

“Uh, excuse me.” 

The doctor turns around and looks at him. 

“I heard someone say something is elevated. What is elevated?” 

There’s silence between them. The doctor hesitates and Chanyeol gets slightly annoyed. He knows medical language; he’s qualified to have this discussion. He deserves to know what is going on with his boyfriend. He deserves to know whether or not something is horribly wrong and as annoyance is replaced by anger, the thoughts of elevated hushed results start morphing into more and more gruesome details. 

The doctor never gets to answer, because the door flies open and a small woman enters in a hurry, almost running to the bed where she falls into Chanyeol’s arms. She sobs into his shoulder. The doctor leaves without a word and Chanyeol grimaces slightly before he turns his attention to his mother-in-law, anger slowly ebbing away. 

When she lets go, she, too, turns towards her son on the bed. Her hands cover her face as she gasps in shock and Chanyeol rests his hand on her shoulder. 

“Oh, my sweet son.” 

She’s whispering, her voice raw with tears and grief. It’s too much for Chanyeol, her pain is too hard to be in, but he can’t leave her alone in the room. It would feel wrong to let her suffer alone. Minseok’s mother is covering her son with kisses and well-wishes, even though he can’t hear her. 

“Is he going to live?” she asks in a whisper. The question is directed at Chanyeol and he thins his lips to prevent crying. He doesn’t want to cry in front of her, doesn’t want to show how afraid he is of Minseok not surviving. Her fear is radiating off of her. Chanyeol doesn’t want to grieve before anything bad has happened. 

“The doctors won’t tell me what’s going on,” he answers. She looks at him sharply, eyes piercing, and Chanyeol wants to hide in the chair. Minseok’s mother may be small, but she can be terrifying, and her piercing glare is something he doesn’t like being subjected to. Then she softens into a smile and grabs his hands in hers, slowly caressing them. 

“He will live. Be strong, Chanyeol. We must be strong for Minseokkie.” 

Chanyeol doesn’t know where she gets her strength but he’s her eternally grateful. 

The overwhelming fear and hurt in the room, however, has him excusing himself when Minseok’s father and sister join them as well. He doesn’t want to intrude on family time either. It doesn’t matter how many times Minseok’s parents insist that he’s family as well, Chanyeol knows they have a special bond and he’s not a part of that. Besides, he should probably go home and take a shower and pack a bag if he’s to stay overnight in the hospital again. 

On his way through the corridors of the hospital, he’s suddenly reminded of the conversation he overheard and the doctor’s reluctance to tell him what’s going on, so instead of heading towards the entrance, he heads towards the small breakroom for the paramedics in front of the ER. Joonmyun looks up when he enters. 

“Hey Cha…” he greets him, but Chanyeol is already past the couch and sitting in front of the computer, clicking furiously to open his boyfriend’s electronic journal. He doesn’t care with a medical justification; knowing what’s going on is all the justification he needs. Joonmyun gets up from the couch and sits down next to Chanyeol. He’s about to ask something when Chanyeol starts muttering to himself, looking through the blood test results. 

The CRP-level is highly elevated. Why would Minseok have an infection when he’s hypothermic? The two things don’t connect. Could he have a pneumonia besides his hypothermia? 

“Why are you looking at Minseok’s blood test?” Joonmyun asks loudly, hand on Chanyeol’s shoulder to ground him and make sure he acknowledges him. Chanyeol turns around in the chair and looks at Joonmyun, blinking in succession when he realizes he’s not alone. 

“Uh,” he hesitates for a few seconds before he decides Joonmyun is a trustworthy coworker, that won’t rat him out to the authorities. “Minseok is admitted to the ICU and the doctors won’t tell me anything about his condition.” 

Joonmyun raises an eyebrow. 

“Sepsis?” he asks and it’s a good guess, considering the elevated numbers on the screen. Chanyeol shakes his head. 

“Hypothermia. Cause undetermined. He doesn’t respond to aggressive treatment. Why is the CRP elevated?” 

Joonmyun frowns, wrinkles forming on his forehead as he’s thinking. He doesn’t have the answer to Minseok’s sudden hypothermia, but Chanyeol wasn’t expecting that. He suggests Chanyeol call in sick for the next couple of days so he can stay with Minseok and it’s a great idea, one Chanyeol is thankful for. He tells Joonmyun that and Joonmyun waves him off, tells him to go home and shower and jokes about his body odor. Chanyeol couldn’t be more grateful to his coworker. 

The drive to the apartment is empty and silent without the radio on, but Chanyeol doesn’t want music. The mailbox is full of newspapers and their neighbor has put new flowers in front of her front door. The apartment rings silent and Chanyeol feels like he’s being choked. 

The memories of the night are clear and the stench of urine coming from the bedroom is strong. He shakes his head a little, drops the keys in their basket, before he continues inside. Turning the lights on in the bedroom only makes the memories stronger. Their sheets are a mess on the bed; there are plastic covers from electrodes spread on the floor where Luhan and his coworker tended to Minseok. There’s a dark spot near the closet from where the stench comes. The blinds are still drawn, only letting a small strip of sunlight through. 

He shakes his head and heads towards the window to pull the blinds up before he tackles the spot on the floor. Cleaning takes his mind off of things for a short while but when the bedroom looks spotless with the window open to air out, memories of Minseok complaining about his cleaning hits him. Minseok has never liked the way Chanyeol cleans, calls it too superficial. It’s never really good enough but it’s never gross either – and at least he does clean. 

Chanyeol used to hate cleaning until he met Minseok, but cleaning with Minseok has always been fun. It has always been a way to release stress after a long day and it doesn’t matter if it’s bathroom duties or the dishes. As long as it’s with Minseok, Chanyeol finds himself enjoying it. 

He looks towards the windows and sends them a small smile, remembering a beautiful spring day in the beginning of their relationship, cleaning the windows. Some of the soapy water ended up in Minseok’s hair but he never scolded Chanyeol for being taller. 

He sniffs and swallows a lump in his throat. Cleaning has always been their most common fight but it’s one that usually ends in laughter and banter – and sometimes in sex. Their differences are what makes them work so well. 

Chanyeol sits down on the couch, leaves the thoughts of panic behind in the bedroom, and stares at the large painting hanging over the armchair. It was the first thing they bought together, Minseok choosing the motive while Chanyeol insisted it be colorful. It lights up their apartment with happiness and it has always felt like the best thing to describe them as a couple. 

As he sits there, staring at the painting, he lets his mind wander to the blood test results and Minseok’s comatose body. He wrecks his mind to find a connection between the results and the hypothermia, but nothing makes sense. The only thing he concludes is that the two must co-exist without any serious correlation. It can’t be the reason he’s not responding to normal hypothermia treatment. There has to be something else. 

The doorbell rings followed by a knock and Baekhyun shouting into the apartment forces Chanyeol out of his thoughts and back to reality. Baekhyun peaks around the corner and finds Chanyeol sitting on the couch. 

“Hey,” he says softly. It’s unlike him but this is an unlikely situation. “Sookyung thought you might need a friend and Minseok’s mother told us you went back to the apartment. Are you okay?” 

Chanyeol swallows another lump. 

“No,” he whispers. He’s not okay. Chanyeol doesn’t want to acknowledge how not-okay he really is, but Baekhyun there, arms extended in an invitation to hug, makes it hard to stay stoic. The apartment and the memories of Minseok hit Chanyeol again like bricks. The fear of losing the only person he has ever loved with his entire being, the one that feels like his soulmate, and the sorrow of seeing him comatose in a hospital bed, has Chanyeol falling into Baekhyun’s embrace. 

Tears spill silently down his cheeks as he fights his own uncertainty. He doesn’t want to look weak, but Baekhyun doesn’t care about weakness. All he cares about is a friend needing him. Together they pack a duffel bag full of clothes, shampoo and a towel. They don’t say much but the gratitude fills the room regardless. 

Baekhyun convinces Chanyeol to bring his electric shaver and the shaving cream and Chanyeol tries teasing him with the fact that he can at least grow a beard. It doesn’t affect Baekhyun in the slightest. They drive to KFC for some real food, as Baekhyun calls it, before they head back to the hospital. 

Minseok is still in the ICU, Sookyung stands at the foot of his bed, his mother sits in the chair next to the bed. Minseok’s father stands behind his wife. They all look towards Chanyeol and Baekhyun when they enter the room. Sookyung looks relieved at the sight of her husband for a short second before her face falls back into the mask of grief she has been wearing. 

Chanyeol knows she’s mostly just uncomfortable being alone with Minseok’s family. She cares about them, about Minseok; she’s just too shy to face his family on her own. Chanyeol sends them all a small smile. Minseok’s mother greets him with a smile of her own, while Baekhyun silently puts his hand around Sookyungs waist and pulls her a little closer. 

The only sounds in the room are the ECMO humming and everybody breathing. Chanyeol is about to ask if the doctor has said anything while he has been away, but he’s interrupted when a new doctor enters the room and looks at everybody assembled. 

“Which of you is Mr. Kim’s partner?” he asks, looking around at all of them as if it isn’t obvious that it’s Chanyeol he’s looking for. 

“Me,” Chanyeol says and steps forward towards the doctor. “What is it?” 

The entire room holds its breath until the doctor breaks into a smile and walks closer to everyone. He extends his hand towards Chanyeol, who takes it slightly confused. The doctor then turns to address all of them. 

“I’m Cho Kyuhyun, the attending doctor on Mr. Kim’s case. Earlier we got some puzzling results back from his blood test, so we have arranged for a cat-scan tomorrow morning. I’ll let you know more when I know more, but until then we’ll continue with the hypothermia treatment as usual.” He then turns to address Chanyeol specifically. “I have arranged for a room at the patient hotel, so you don’t get a kink in your neck sleeping in the chair. Let me know if you have any questions.” 

He’s still smiling when he finishes, and everybody stays silent for a moment, soaking up the information. Chanyeol is the first to speak. 

“Are the puzzling results the CRP elevation?” he asks and everybody in the room turns to him. Even dr. Cho seems surprised that he knows of the results. “I’m a paramedic,” he says sheepishly as explanation and is about to apologize for listening in on conversations, when dr. Cho chuckles a bit and nods. 

“Yes. We haven’t quite figured out how the elevation and the hypothermia connects. We’re hoping the cat-scan tomorrow will show us something of use.” 

He nods his head in a bow before he leaves them. Baekhyun casts Chanyeol a long look, one that says he knows he’s been snooping and that he should trust the doctors. Chanyeol disregards him. Sookyung is looking at him disappointed, but he also disregards that. His parents-in-law look at him with confusion. 

“What does it mean, Chanyeol?” his father-in-law asks. Chanyeol takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a split second before he focuses on his boyfriend in the hospital bed. 

“It means he most likely has an infection as well. How it connects to the hypothermia, I have no idea. I guess we just have to wait for the scan tomorrow and see what it says.” 

Chanyeol wants to believe his words, but they sound hollow, even to him. He doesn’t trust the doctors. He doesn’t understand the underlying medical issues either and everything sucks. It just plainly sucks. They sit in silence for a few minutes before Baekhyun announces their leave and pulls Sookyung with him. Minseok’s parents leave not long after with promises to come back the next day. 

When Chanyeol is alone in the room with Minseok, he sits beside him on the bed, careful not to pull on any line or wire, and presses his lips to Minseok’s nose. 

“I love you,” he whispers. “I love you so much.”


	3. THREE

The cat-scan doesn’t show any infection. An ultrasound doesn’t show any infection. The blood tests still show elevated CRP-levels and the doctors are just as confused as Chanyeol. He sits beside Minseok, holds his hand and caresses the cold skin to hopefully bring back some warmth. If only his love could cure his boyfriend. 

There is no breakthrough, there is no improvement. Minseok is still stable with a core temperature of 28°C, silent on his bed while the ECMO provides him life. Chanyeol learns the names of the nurses in the ICU, he greets the doctors on a daily basis and sits beside Minseok every day. 

His parents-in-law stop by for a couple of hours every day as well, their conversations straying into normal territory of work and plans for the future. Baekhyun and Sookyung check up on them every once in a while, to make sure that Minseok isn’t getting worse and that Chanyeol knows he can count on them in times of need. It’s very sweet of them. 

Chanyeol has gone from devastated to frustrated to angry to confused. Now he’s just tired. He’s tired of being sad, tired of grief, sorrow and anger. The doctors are doing everything they can, and nothing seems to work. It’s frustrating. He’s still on sick leave from work so he can stay with Minseok every awake minute of his day. 

“Excuse me Chanyeol,” Sehee, the head nurse, calls into the room and he turns around in his chair, not letting go of Minseok’s hand. “I need you to step out for a moment. The doctors want to take an x-ray of Minseok’s lungs to make sure the ECMO isn’t causing any damage.” 

She’s smiling kindly and Chanyeol nods. He kisses Minseok’s cold hand, presses his fingers against his cheek for a few seconds before he leaves his boyfriend alone. 

He goes to the cafeteria to get some lunch and a cup of coffee. He watches the patients and their relatives in the cafeteria while he’s there. Elderly women and men with IV-drips on tripods, pregnant women and their husbands and a teenager with their leg in a cast. There are people who look terminally ill, dressed in robes and barely standing, and patients who look like they’re about to be discharged. 

It makes him feel oddly alone, even though he’s surrounded by people. Chanyeol isn’t the first person to lose someone he loves; he isn’t the first to not know whether or not the love of his life is going to survive. Still, he feels like no one around him can relate to the uncertainty that hurts him on a daily basis. He doesn’t sit in the cafeteria for long, but when he goes back, the door to Minseok’s room is closed. 

Looking through the window in the door, he sees two men, one is dr. Cho, the other is dressed in a black suit. They’re talking animatedly in what look like secrecy. His hand hovers over the doorknob, when he’s interrupted by Sehee behind him. 

“I’m sorry, Chanyeol. You shouldn’t interrupt right now. Can I help you with something?” she says, smile on her face as kind as always, but there’s something in her eyes, something mysterious he can’t quite read. 

“Who’s the man in the suit?” he asks, voice betraying him a little. Sehee just continues her kind smile. 

“You should talk to Dr. Cho when he’s finished,” she says and knows a lot more than she says. Chanyeol sends them a glance through the window but none of the men notice him. 

In the end, he agrees to accompany Sehee to the small waiting area in the ICU where a father and his two children sit, tears streaming down their face as a resident gives them the unfortunate news that their mother has passed away due to a stroke. This is not ideal. The entire area is full of grief and sorrow and it tugs on Chanyeol’s heart and reminds him that he could be on the same end of the same horrible news in no time. He closes his eyes and tries to force out the sound of crying and the whispers around him. 

Baekhyun is a welcome distraction in the waiting area and when the man in the black suit walks past them without sparing them a look, Chanyeol jumps from his chair and speed-walks to Minseok’s room. Dr. Cho is no longer in there, but it doesn’t matter. He will get his answers later. He leans down and kisses Minseok’s cold lips, holds his hand and rests his head gently on his chest to hear the heartbeat that is barely there. Baekhyun comes back from his trip to the toilet and watches Chanyeol carefully from his spot in the doorway.

A few hours later, dr. Cho steps into the room again to check on Minseok and the ECMO. Chanyeol lets him do his job first, before he grabs the sleeve of his doctor’s coat. Dr. Cho turns around in his hold and looks at him with questioning eyes. 

“Who was the man that was here earlier?” Chanyeol asks. His voice isn’t wavering or desperate. He wants answers and he’s not letting dr. Cho get out of this. The doctor sighs a little and Chanyeol lets go of his clothes. 

“We’ve found an unknown virus in Minseok’s blood. None of us have ever encountered it before and Dr. Hwang suggested it might be related to the hypothermia, so we have contacted the CDC to take over and investigate the virus. Until we know more, we’re isolating him, and you should probably keep your distance even though I know it’s hard.” 

Chanyeol chews on his cheek as he listens to dr. Cho. This makes even less sense. Where would Minseok have encountered a strange virus nobody has encountered before? How could it have entered his system in the first place? Then he registers the last part of dr. Cho’s sentence and whips around so fast he’s lucky he doesn’t get injured. 

“What?” 

His voice is now high-pitched and desperate. He only now registers that dr. Cho is wearing gloves, a medical mask and a cover-up. Dr. Cho nods. 

“I understand it can be difficult, but we’d rather not take any chances.” 

This is absurd. Chanyeol has been with Minseok the entire time he’s been admitted to the hospital and he doesn’t have any symptoms he has caught whatever it is they have found in Minseok’s blood. He’s about to protest, but he doesn’t get to when dr. Cho gestures to the door and sends him a stern look. 

When the door closes to the room, however, Chanyeol lets his anger overflow. He’s scolding the doctors and the nurses and being completely irrational, but they let him rant and when the tears threaten to spill, Sehee hands him a handkerchief and pats his shoulder comforting. 

“I’m sorry Chanyeol,” she says, voice empathetic and understanding and it only has Chanyeol crying harder. Behind the door lies Minseok on the bed alone. 

\---

The phlebotomist rummages through his drawers and finds the vial he needs. Chanyeol sits in the chair next to him, arm resting on the table. The phlebotomist has been trying to make small-talk but Chanyeol has been pretty curt with him. Ever since Minseok got isolated and the CDC got on the case of the unknown virus, Chanyeol has been in an awful mood. 

It has only been about 24 hours, but 24 hours separated from his comatose boyfriend is 24 hours too much. Sehee has been understanding and tried to help him all she could, but it’s not enough when he’s still not allowed to sit beside Minseok and kiss his cold hands. 

Now he’s here to get a blood test to make sure he hasn’t caught whatever virus it is, and the CDC is nowhere closer to getting him any more information. Chanyeol knows that it’s not really their job to inform a desperate relative to a sick patient of anything but he doesn’t care too much for technicalities. He just wants to know if Minseok will ever wake up and be okay and nobody so far has been able to give him any answers. 

The tiny prick when the needle pierces his skin stings for a few seconds as his blood empties into the small glass vials. It’s not the first time Chanyeol has seen his own blood but it still makes him a little nauseous, so he turns away and looks towards the wall. There’s silent in the small room beside the wall clock ticking the seconds away, one second more not spent with Minseok. 

Chanyeol can feel annoyance grow within him again. It’s irrational and he’s been plenty annoyed in the time Minseok has been in the hospital, but he just doesn’t know how to work through the emotions anymore. It has always been Minseok who sat him down to talk it out, who lent an ear when he was affected by his work or forced him to scream at the world when it was just too unfair. It has always been Minseok who stroked his hair when he wanted to hide and whose strong chest Chanyeol found comfort crying into when things got too difficult. 

It has always been Minseok who helped Chanyeol deal with negative emotions and now that there’s no Minseok and plenty of negative emotions, Chanyeol finds that he’s just unable to deal with everything. 

It’s not the phlebotomist’ fault, so Chanyeol bites his remark back when the needle slides out of his skin and a white cotton patch is put on top to stop the minimal bleeding. 

“Done,” he says with a smile and Chanyeol looks away from the wall to face the other man in the room. A faint smile grazes his lips as he thanks him for doing his job well and leaves the lab. It’s not until he’s a few meters from the entrance to the lab, that an idea strikes him like lightning from the clear sky. The lab. Minseok’s work. Something might have happened at the lab. He fumbles with his phone and curses as he almost drops it. A woman walks past him with a disapproving gaze but Chanyeol doesn’t care. 

“I think I know what happened!” he says the minute Baekhyun picks up. “No no, we have to meet up. Now. Bring Sookyung.” There’s a pause and Chanyeol ribs the cotton pad off of his arm. “I’ll come to you then. Stay there. I’ll be there in a few!” 

When he hangs up, Chanyeol is already speed-walking down the corridors, half-running towards the entrance. It takes 30 minutes to get to the café in which Baekhyun and Sookyung is on a date. Chanyeol doesn’t feel an ounce of guilt for interrupting their self-proclaimed very important alone time. Sookyung looks at him, half-worried, half-annoyed. 

“What’s up?” she asks, hand pointedly holding onto Baekhyun’s and not letting go when Chanyeol sits down in the chair next to her. 

“I know what happened to Minseok!” he says, out of breath and a little sweaty. Both Baekhyun and Sookyung widen their eyes at that. 

“Spill! Is he going to be alright? Did he wake up?” Baekhyun says in a hurried whisper. Sookyung looks just as shocked at the news. Chanyeol shakes his head wildly, still slightly panting and trying to catch his breath.

“The lab,” he says, and both of his friend look at him, now slightly confused. 

“The lab?” Sookyung asks, disbelief clouding her voice. Chanyeol nods. 

“I got a blood test and … the lab! The unknown virus must’ve come from whatever they were doing at the lab. I gotta ...” he takes a deep breath and continues. “I have to find Minseok’s coworkers.” 

“Hang on.” 

Baekhyun looks from Chanyeol to Sookyung and back to Chanyeol again. 

“Unknown virus?” he asks and Chanyeol realizes it’s only been 24 hours and he hasn’t spoken to either of his two friends in that time frame. He guiltily rubs his neck, looks towards the table for a second before he decides to tell his friends his theory anyway. That is why he’s here, interrupting their date, after all. 

“Yesterday,” he starts. Then he looks at Baekhyun and points an accusing finger towards him. “Remember the guy in the black suit that went past us in the waiting area?” 

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow in thought and then shakes his head. 

“There are a million people in suits in the hospital,” he says. It’s a lie. There are not a lot of people in suits in hospitals and Chanyeol knows this, but he lets Baekhyun off the hook. Baekhyun probably just didn’t notice him as anything out of the ordinary. 

“Get on with it Chanyeol.” Sookyung sounds rather annoyed now. Chanyeol frowns at her. 

“Yesterday I saw a man in a black suit talking to dr. Cho. I asked later what it was about, and he told me, they’d found an unknown virus in Minseok’s blood and called the CDC. They have isolated him and asked me to keep my distance until they know what it is. This morning I got a blood test to make sure I hadn’t caught whatever virus it is, and I realized, maybe this is a result of Minseok’s work in Lab 32. Maybe they found something, and it spread to him and made him ill. I have to get into Lab 32. I have to speak to his coworkers!” 

His voice grows more enthusiastic as he speaks. Sookyung tilts her head a little. 

“Do you even know his coworkers?” she asks, skeptical with the whole thing. Chanyeol deflates a little. He does know a few of Minseok’s coworkers by name because Minseok has spoken about them before, but he doesn’t actually know them. He might have met a few at the annual gala a couple of years ago, but that’s not useful now. 

“How are you going to sneak into Lab 32? It’s still South Korea’s leading research facility, they’re going to have a lot of security.” 

There’s silent around the table while Chanyeol thinks this through. Surely, he could use Minseok’s ID but when he voices this idea, Baekhyun bursts out in laughter, disturbing a few of the other patrons in the café. There is simply no way he can fool anyone into believing he’s Minseok. 

The idea of being honest with the security guards is shot down by Sookyungs headshake. Nobody’s going to believe him and even when they confirm that Minseok is in the ICU, they’re going to go to the government, not some stranger that claims to be Minseok’s partner. Chanyeol grumbles for a few minutes and Baekhyun hands over the last half of his cake so he can consume that while he’s deep in thought. He doesn’t notice that his friends start their date all over even though he’s sitting there beside them. 

When he finally realizes that the answer to all his security woes is sitting right beside him, he’s so loud that multiple people in the café call differing versions of “shut up” towards them. 

“You!” he shouts and points to Sookyung who winces at the sheer volume. 

“What about me?” she asks, voice sour and glare deadly. 

“You’re a brigadier officer! You can get me into Lab 32, can’t you?” 

She stares at him for a few seconds before she bursts into laughter. Baekhyun is looking confused at his wife. She can’t contain her laughter anymore and has to let go of his hand to dry the tears rolling down her cheeks. Chanyeol doesn’t get what’s so funny. 

“You want me to,” she says and then has to pause to continue laughing. “You want me to get you into Lab 32 on military grounds?” she asks when she’s finally done laughing. Chanyeol nods enthusiastically. 

“Oh, poor Chanyeol, I love you but you’re stupid. I can’t get you into Lab 32 like that.” 

Baekhyun reaches over to take her hand again, intertwining their fingers, and Chanyeol feels his heart plummet to his feet. 

“Why not?” he asks, defeated and sad. Sookyung pats his shoulder with her other hand and sends him a small smile. There is still laughter shimmering in her eyes.

“Because the military doesn’t have that kind of authority when there hasn’t been issued any safety warning. Did you even tell dr. Cho that Minseok works at Lab 32?” 

It’s like a lightbulb is lit over his head. He feels embarrassed when he shakes his head and Sookyung shoos him off the chair, telling him to go straight to the hospital to tell dr. Cho and stop interrupting their date. 

Chanyeol leaves them feeling conflicted. He understands that it would be stupid to withhold important information, such as Minseok working at Lab 32, from the doctors and the CDC, but at the same time, he has felt so useless and hopeless that he wants to get to the bottom of this on his own. The doctors clearly don’t know what they’re dealing with and even though they have experts trying to figure it out, it doesn’t feel right to just sit back and do nothing. It annoys him. 

Instead of going back to the ICU, Chanyeol heads to the paramedic headquarters and sits down in the large couch. Luhan turns around in the kitchen and raises an eyebrow at him. 

“I thought you were on sick leave?” he asks. Chanyeol nods but Luhan doesn’t see because he has turned back to his food. 

“I am.” 

He needs somewhere to think and going back to the apartment just isn’t right. Minseok’s parents have suggested he moves in with them, just a for a short while, if it’s too much to stay in the apartment. His own parents have reluctantly extended their help as well if he needs it. It’s not it, though. Chanyeol doesn’t need to live somewhere else, no, he still needs Minseok’s presence in his life and he’s not going to pretend that Minseok has already died. He doesn’t need the sorrow and uncertainty that is so heavy around his parents-in-law. 

“So, what are you doing here? Joonmyun isn’t in today,” Luhan says. He’s still rummaging with his food at the counter. Chanyeol sighs. 

“I needed somewhere to think that wasn’t our apartment. Do you think it’s relevant where Minseok works?” 

There’s silence in the break room for a few minutes while Luhan finishes up. When he turns and sits at the table, he looks at Chanyeol quizzically. 

“You know it can be important. I thought you had told them already?” 

Chanyeol shakes his head. It hasn’t occurred to him before now, but now that it might be important, he doesn’t really want to tell them. Luhan looks at him with a raised eyebrow, silence spreading around them until the alarm sounds from Luhan’s pocket and he groans. A woman peeks in from the rest area, hair sticking in every direction. She rubs her eyes before she glares at Luhan and the man rolls his eyes at her.

“Hey Mei Tao,” Chanyeol says, and she just sends him a flat look. 

“I haven’t slept all night,” she says and trudges to the coat stand to grab her jacket. “Kids. Don’t get them.” 

With those words, she leaves Chanyeol alone in the break room and Luhan running after her to get to the ambulance and to the call. Alone in the break room, Chanyeol finds the peace and quiet he needs to think. No matter how little he wants to give the doctors information about Minseok’s life, it’s the right thing to do. It could help the CDC with identifying the virus and potentially other victims. 

It’s the last thought, the thought that there might be someone else out there, exposed to the same virus that cements Chanyeol’s decision. For all the fear he’s living with, if someone else has been exposed, someone else might be struggling with the same fear and it’s a thought he can’t bear. He can’t be responsible for someone else’s loss, even if it’s just by withholding information. 

Instead of going home, when he leaves the break room, he heads for the ICU. Sehee is there, smiling at him from her desk in the front, tilting her head to the side. 

“There have been no changes,” she says when he’s close by and he stops in front of her desk and sends her a smile. 

“Would it be possible for me to go inside if I get dressed up?” 

It’s not what he has planned to say but being here again, this close to Minseok, makes it slip. He can’t be here, stand on the other side of the door and just look at Minseok from afar. Sehee shakes her head with a chuckle before she nods and gets off of her chair. 

“Yeah, but you have to promise not to kiss him.” 

Chanyeol isn’t making any promises and he tells Sehee this. She pretends that she doesn’t hear him as she finds cover, gloves and mask to him. The cover is a little too small for his tall frame but Sehee doesn’t have anything bigger and Chanyeol doesn’t care too much. This is all just protocol anyway. He hasn’t caught the virus from sleeping next to Minseok the first days he was admitted to the hospital so surely, he isn’t going to catch it now either. 

Minseok is still and cold like he has been for the past week and a half and the ECMO-machine is humming its repetitive rhythm in the corner. Sehee has been combing his hair daily to avoid knots, Chanyeol can see it. How soft his hair looks despite his illness. Looking at Minseok has Chanyeol’s stomach forming knots and his heart hurting. He looks so good, so beautiful. He looks exactly like he’s sleeping if it wasn’t for the paler color on his skin. 

When Chanyeol ducks down to press his lips to Minseok’s forehead, he’s interrupted by a cough from the door. He looks behind him and watches Sehee shake her head, eyes serious. He rolls his eyes but straightens back up, kissing his own gloved finger and pressing it to Minseok’s lips instead. Soon enough, he will get to kiss his boyfriend again. 

“Where’s doctor Cho?” he asks when he’s outside Minseok’s room, no longer dressed in all the gear. Sehee shrugs a little but offers to call him. Chanyeol shakes the offer away; it’s not necessary. 

“Tell him that Minseok is a chemist at Lab 32,” he says instead. “I thought it might be useful information.” 

With those words, he bids Sehee a good afternoon and leaves her in the ICU with patients and colleagues.


	4. FOUR

The sun is about to set the sky on fire and the city is bustling with people getting off work and heading home when Chanyeol exits the hospital. The temperature is warmer than he expects, and he slowly takes off his jacket. It’s still too early to be spring but Chanyeol doesn’t care when he walks through the city, he calls his home and observes people walking past. 

He sits down on a bench in front of a small corner park and looks at the city around him. The thing that overpowers him, though, is the feeling that he’s missing a part of himself. Minseok should be there beside him, pointing out the birds that fly a little too close for comfort or the young couple playing with their young son. He should be there, holding Chanyeol’s hand and resting his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder. There is something so fundamentally wrong in being here alone that Chanyeol feels a lump in his throat and a knot in his heart. 

It’s not that Chanyeol isn’t used to walking around alone or being independent. He is. He goes to work alone; he goes grocery shopping alone and he hangs out with his friends without Minseok. Chanyeol is independent enough but he likes coming home to Minseok and snuggling up and becoming a twosome. 

With Minseok in the hospital, however, Chanyeol feels more alone than ever. It sucks. He gets off of the bench and continues on his way home as the sun slowly sets in the distance and the sky turns orange. 

\---

Chanyeol is awakened at 6 AM by his phone ringing. He reaches out towards the noise, his foggy brain not caring too much about who’s calling. He rolls over onto his side and notices the cold side of the bed that is Minseok’s and everything comes back to him. It’s not the hospital calling, though, and Chanyeol groans when he hears his best friend on the other end. 

“What time is it?” he asks, voice hoarse and sleepy. Baekhyun sighs on the other end and Chanyeol grimaces in his bed. 

“Why so early? What is it?” He listens while Baekhyun tells him about a Kris Wu, a chemist at Lab 32, that has been admitted to Asan Medical Center with untreatable hypothermia. It takes a while for Chanyeol’s sleeping brain to catch up. 

“Wait, what? Are you serious?” Chanyeol jumps out of bed and flings the closet door open. He’s trying to grab a pair of jeans but everything he gets his hands on are Minseok’s and he’s just too tall for Minseok’s jeans. 

“We have to go there!” 

Baekhyun continues on about how Chanyeol isn’t in any state to drive and he’s going to pick him up and Chanyeol mocks him silently with grimaces while he still tries to find any decent clothing. When he hangs up on Baekhyun, he has fifteen minutes to get dressed and shaved. 

He’s not ready when the doorbell rings at 6.25 AM. He opens the door with his razor in hand and shaving cream still covering half his chin. Baekhyun groans. 

“Go get ready, you caveman,” he says and pushes Chanyeol back into the apartment. Chanyeol rolls his eyes but does what he’s told. He finishes shaving, brushes his teeth and washes his face with water. Baekhyun looks at their painting in the living room when Chanyeol finds him again. 

“Are we even allowed to visit at this hour?” he asks and Baekhyun shrugs a little. 

“It’ll take an hour or more to get there anyway because of traffic and we have to pick up Sookyung first, so we should be good. I don’t know too much about Kris Wu’s condition, though, so it might not be the same and they might not give you any details.” 

“How did you get details anyway?” Chanyeol asks as he locks the front door to the apartment and starts towards the stairs. Baekhyun grabs his sleeve and pulls him in the direction of the elevators instead. 

“I have connections,” he says with a smirk and Chanyeol knows it’s a lie, so he punches Baekhyun’s shoulder lightly and asks again. Baekhyun looks betrayed at Chanyeol. 

“Sookyung has connections. I don’t know how she got the details; maybe she forced it out of someone with her muscles.” 

Chanyeol snorts at the mental image of Sookyung holding someone in a headlock, forcing them to spill whatever details they know. It’s not that the image is unlikely, Sookyung has put many strong men in headlocks, including both Chanyeol and Baekhyun, but she doesn’t like to display just how strong she actually is outside of field work. Chanyeol knows he wouldn’t dare be her enemy, however. She’s small but extremely terrifying – another reason she has been promoted so quickly in the military. 

Sookyung hits them both on the head with a newspaper when they pick her up and tell her about the torture, she must’ve put someone through to get the details of Kris Wu, currently in a hypothermic coma.

“He’s the uncle to one of the guys,” she says and hits them both again, just to really stick it to them. “You’re idiots. I don’t go around torturing people.” 

Chanyeol and Baekhyun share a look that says otherwise. 

“If you say so, sweetheart,” Baekhyun says and Sookyung raises the newspaper in warning. “Thinking of you headlocking someone makes you way cooler.” 

She rolls her eyes, lets the newspaper down again and looks out the window, purposely ignoring both of them while they share another grin. 

When they pull up to Asan Medical Center, there’re already filled parking lots and ambulances arriving to the ER. People are filing in and out even though it’s only 8 AM. Baekhyun is cursing as he cruises through the parking lots, Sookyung is texting someone and Chanyeol is getting increasingly impatient. 

When they round the parking lot for the fourth time, Chanyeol groans out loud and Baekhyun looks annoyed at him. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll drop you off in front of the main entrance and keep looking for a parking spot,” he says. Annoyance is dripping from his voice but it’s nothing compared to the annoyance Chanyeol feels bubbling to the surface. He keeps it hidden, though, when he exits the car with Sookyung, and they stand in front of the large main entrance. 

“How are we even going to find Kris Wu?” he asks her and Sookyung shrugs. 

“Private Zhang said he would be visiting today, I was hoping we could tag along,” she explains, hand twisting her hair nervously. Chanyeol blinks a couple of times, then laughs. 

“You’re brilliant, Sookyung!” 

Time ticks by oh so slowly while they’re waiting for Private Zhang. Baekhyun has started grading papers, his glasses hanging low on his nose, making him seem older than he actually is. Sookyung is resting her head on his shoulder, eyes closed, even though she’s the only one who could possibly recognize Private Zhang. Chanyeol has resorted to guessing the diseases of those who enter the main entrance. 

A diabetic man, a woman with COPH carrying her home-oxygen in her purse. There are a lot of children coming in with their father and leaving with both their parents and the new addition to the family. A woman enters with flowers and continues towards the staircase. 

They buy brunch at the cafeteria but none of them are eating a lot of it. Food from the hospital just doesn’t taste the same as homemade food and with Minseok in the ICU they all feel they’ve had too much already. The receptionist goes home and another one replaces her, and they continue their waiting until sometime in the afternoon when Sookyung gets off of her seat and salutes a young man. 

The man is taller than her, but he looks oddly nervous around her as he salutes her as well and then bows 90 degrees. Baekhyun and Chanyeol share a look before they too get up from their seats to greet Private Zhang.

Private Zhang is named Yixing and he asks them all to address him by his first name. He’s half-Chinese, half-Korean and serving in the Korean army had been his dream since he was a child and saw his father serve. He sends Chanyeol a sympathetic look, when he learns that it is Chanyeol whose boyfriend is in the ICU and he then guides them to the ICU where his uncle is currently also frozen in coma. The doctors and nurses all look at the three newcomers with suspicion. Chanyeol is about to present himself when Yixing does it for him. 

“I’m here to visit my uncle, miss Joohyun. This is my bo…” He doesn’t get to say anymore before Sookyung interrupts. 

“Brother-in-law,” she says and points to Chanyeol. “It’s his brother-in-law and we’re his friends.” 

It takes all of them off guard. Yixing blinks confused for a few moments, before Sookyung scowls at him and then fakes another smile to the nurse. 

“Oh, yes. It’s … it’s, uh, my brother-in-law. Can he join me at my uncle’s bedside? He knew him as well and he just arrived back in Korea after some time abroad in Africa after he heard the horrible news.” 

Yixing sends Joohyun a sweet smile, dimples showing in both cheeks and Joohyun sighs loudly and gestures towards the door. 

“Don’t spend too long, he’s going to radiology again for a new cat-scan later,” she says and Yixing nods. He grabs Chanyeol’s wrist and pulls him to the door. Sookyung and Baekhyun look after them before she sighs and sneaks her hand into Baekhyun’s and intertwines their fingers. 

Inside the room, Chanyeol turns to Yixing with wide eyes. 

“Africa? What the fuck?” he says, maybe a little too loud. Yixing shrugs a little and turns towards his uncle on the bed, cold and still. 

“It was the first thing I could think of,” he says and runs a hand over Kris’ hand. Chanyeol turns to the man on the bed and watches him. 

He’s seen him before, he thinks. At the annual Christmas gala that Minseok had dragged him to the second year they were together. If Chanyeol’s memory serves him correctly, he was a scary man with few words. He shudders a bit. Then he turns towards all the monitoring. Kris isn’t hooked up to an ECMO like Minseok, but the heart rate and respiration rate are alike. 

“What’s his temperature?” Chanyeol asks and Yixing breaks from his thoughts and looks at him. 

“Uh, I don’t know. Why?” 

Chanyeol doesn’t respond while he checks the ECG that lies around. Someone must’ve forgotten it, he notes, but it doesn’t give him any news on the condition. 

“My boyfriend is at 28°C and he stays there no matter how aggressively they treat him. They’ve found an unknown virus in him. Since your uncle and my boyfriend both work as chemists at Lab 32 I was thinking there may be a connection,” he says and Yixing looks at him in wonder and admiration. 

“That’s really cool. You have to tell the doctors,” he says and is about to leave to fetch someone. Chanyeol stops him with a firm hand on his shoulder. 

“The CDC is already on it and they’ll find the cure to the virus. I’m sure they have already been here to confirm or deny the existence of the same virus in Kris,” he says and smiles sadly. Yixing looks dubious at him but then turns back around to his uncle and continues talking to him in Chinese. Chanyeol taps his shoulder a couple of seconds later. 

“Thanks, kid.” 

Then he exits the room and is greeted by a curious Baekhyun and a sleeping Sookyung. 

\---

Chanyeol can’t sleep at night. The apartment is stifling and too cold. It’s like every nook and cranny of the apartment misses Minseok as well and the pain seeps from the walls. It’s not right, the apartment whispers at him, and Chanyeol feels like he’s going crazy. 

It’s been a week since he learned that Kris Wu was also in the ICU with the same strange condition as Minseok and he hasn’t heard anything since. The hospital calls him once in a while to keep him updated but there’re no news. Minseok stays stable and nothing changes at all. Nobody has any information about the unknown virus but it’s beginning to drive Chanyeol crazy. 

How long can it take for the government to find the same things he has. They have more resources and still, it feels like they don’t care at all. Chanyeol is now convinced there’s a relation between the strange virus and the condition, all they need is to find the creator of the virus and force him to hand out the cure. It seems easier than done, however, if he is to take the fact that absolutely nothing happens into account. 

He grows angrier as time goes by, even Baekhyun notices, and sitting next to Minseok isn’t the same when he’s covered in paper coats and gloves. The toilet seat slams against the porcelain and Chanyeol stares into the mirror. No, he can’t take another week, another month, of this – of waiting for nothing to happen. If nothing else, he can track down the terrorist who poisoned his boyfriend with a man-made virus and demand the cure himself. If the doctors can’t do anything for Minseok, the least Chanyeol can do is try to find the cure. 

The water is running from the faucet as he continues encouraging himself to do the impossible. It’s stupid to think of him as some kind of superhero but as he stands in front of the mirror, everything comes back to him. He’s Minseok’s everyday superhero, the one who makes a difference for so many people. It’s what Minseok tells him when he’s having doubts, when he’s having difficult patients and horrific accidents. When all he arrives to is death and disaster, he can go home and ask for forgiveness for not having done enough and Minseok will remind him of all the good he does. If Chanyeol can do so for everyone else, he can do the same and more for his boyfriend. 

He turns off the water and leaves the bathroom, determination setting in. 

\---

Chanyeol’s stomach growls and he hits it lightly to stop it. Baekhyun looks at him with pity, sandwich in front of him already half devoured. Chanyeol’s food sits untouched. 

“Come on, you have to eat. Minseok would be sad to wake up to you becoming ultra-skinny. He likes your muscles and you haven’t been hitting the gym,” Baekhyun says and points his sandwich towards Chanyeol. Chanyeol rolls his eyes.

“He would understand that I’ve been worried and that it has taken its toll on me like it has him. He hasn’t been hitting the gym either.” 

Baekhyun looks up from his food, staring at Chanyeol in disbelief. 

“You’re not serious, right?” he asks, obviously in doubt. Chanyeol snorts. 

“Of course not. Minseok would understand,” he says. He’s confident in his boyfriend. Besides, if the situation had been reversed, Minseok would’ve been worried sick. At least Chanyeol hopes so. He has a pretty good feeling he’s right about this. Baekhyun sighs and goes back to eating. 

“Yeah, I know, he would, he’s a good guy. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to take care of yourself as well. Now eat up.” 

Baekhyun swipes his hand towards Chanyeol’s food again to remind him to eat and Chanyeol relents, mostly just to humor his best friend. When he’s halfway through his food, he looks over his shoulder and leans across the table at Baekhyun, who leans back against his chair to keep the distance between them. Chanyeol squints at him and beckons him closer with his hand. 

“What’s up?” Baekhyun whispers when he leans in conspiratorially. 

“I’m going to find whoever created the virus before the doctors,” Chanyeol whispers back. Baekhyun chokes on his saliva and has to lean back and cough. When he finally recovers, Chanyeol looks out the window, staring at the people walking by. 

“What?!” he screeches, and someone shushes them from the bar. They ignore the glare they’re sent. “Are you for real right now? How can you possibly do that?” 

There’s silent for a few minutes while Chanyeol considers his response. 

“I have you and Sookyung, she has to have some connections. And I can maybe get Luhan and Joonmyun to help with the virus. Or I can visit Lab 32 and find some of Minseok’s cowork...” 

“Have you gone mad?” Baekhyun interrupts, voice now hushed and hurried. “You don’t know any of Minseok’s coworkers and you could lose your license if you dig into medical files that are not for you to see.” 

Chanyeol pouts. All of it is true, but … 

“I have to do something,” he answers, voice just as low as Baekhyun’s but not as panicked. “I can’t wait months for the CDC, the ECMO isn’t going to keep Minseok alive forever. It’s already been a couple of weeks. There’s another victim out there as well and the CDC is doing nothing. I have to do it Baekhyun.” 

They stare at each other. 

“God, you’re not doing this alone,” Baekhyun eventually says and Chanyeol widens his eyes in confusion and surprise. 

“What?” he asks, dumbfounded. 

“If you’re going to do illegal shit to save your boyfriend, you’re not going to do it alone.” 

Baekhyun sips the last of his drink, reaches around his chair to grab his jacket and stands up. Chanyeol’s food is still only half-eaten and he’s still sitting on his chair, mouth open in shock, as he stares at his best friend. 

“Come on, you fool.” 

The smile that spreads across Chanyeol’s face is huge. Baekhyun ignores it.


	5. FIVE

Chanyeol walks through Hangang Park after he separates with Baekhyun at the restaurant. The sun is setting, giving the city skyline an orange background, and young couples and families are emerging from their homes to enjoy a lovely evening stroll. A band is busking on the grass as he walks past, people sitting on blankets and listening. The bike lanes are full as usual, and an elderly woman is training with the park equipment underneath the bridge.

He continues walking, fighting away the tears, and as he settles down on a concrete staircase, he looks towards the river and remembers. Minseok loves the Han river. They were here often, as friends before they started dating and posing as friends afterwards. A hand secretly snuck into a pocket to intertwine fingers and carefully placed thighs, close enough to show a secret intimacy yet far away to not be interpreted as anything more than friends.

Chanyeol has always been the more talkative of the two, his words sometimes running rampant when love overwhelms him, but Minseok has always been able to translate exactly what he means. It’s memories of the nights spent watching the stars and the occasional airplane, sitting near the black water and wondering where they would be without each other.

The streetlights behind him turns on when the sun sets too low and the sky turns dark and he gets up. There are still a lot of people hanging out in Hangang Park, friends and families enjoying each other’s company. Chanyeol leaves the park when the longing becomes too much and the pain of losing Minseok becomes too real. He doesn’t get any sleep that night.

\---

Sehee looks at him with pity. It’s becoming a little unsettling. She doesn’t say anything, though, because she knows Chanyeol doesn’t need a whole bunch of false hope. There is still no news from the CDC and his boyfriend’s condition hasn’t changed one bit, neither for better nor worse. She hands him a sandwich silently and pats his back softly before she goes back to the reception to fetch the file for the newly admitted patient.

Chanyeol sits outside the door to Minseok’s room and stares through the small glass window. Minseok is still isolated and Chanyeol isn’t really allowed to go inside. There is still no touching and he still has to wear the cover, the gloves and the mask, so it doesn’t feel right to go in. There’s no anger left in him, however. Just sadness.

Sometimes Minseok’s mother joins him in the chair next to his, watching her son-in-law with a sad smile and longing eyes. The hope that once burned in them has died only to be rekindled again. They don’t talk a lot. Chanyeol wants to say something but words of encouragement are only a façade by now. No one knows if Minseok is ever going to wake up and no one knows what he’ll be like if he does. The ECMO is doing its job and so is the ICU personnel but even then, there’re no guarantees. There never is with medicine.

“What now?” Chanyeol asks impatiently into his phone. An elderly man sitting in a wheelchair is staring at him, discreetly turning his chair a little so he can listen in on the conversation. Chanyeol eyes him and walks a few steps away, hoping to regain his privacy. “That’s …” he says and pauses a few seconds. “Okay, you’re brilliant. I owe you. No, I’m not going to say that, goodbye Baekhyun”.

Chanyeol hangs up on his best friend as a goofy smile spreads on his face.

The man is smoking a cigarette when he turns back towards him and enters the hospital again. There’s a certain spring to his steps as he continues through corridors until he reaches the ICU and even Sehee looks up at him with a question burning in her eyes. She doesn’t ask and Chanyeol doesn’t tell her.

As he’s staring in through the door, he silently promises Minseok that he will find the cure. If the government won’t do it, Chanyeol will.

\---

“You guys are idiots,” Sookyung says. She’s staring at the large glass door in front of them, LAB 32 carved across the glass in cursive. It looks ridiculously fancy for the enormous laboratory hiding behind the doors.

They’re standing outside of it, while Baekhyun tries to convince a security guard inside that he’s here to have a meeting with a chemist. Chanyeol looks towards Sookyung and shrugs a little. He’s fumbling with a paper in his pocket, trying to keep his nerves in check.

Baekhyun might be a mathematician and a professor in math at SNU but he is not, in any way, very good at convincing people. He doesn’t emerge back outside, however, and with every passing minute, the hope grows within Chanyeol.

“It’s going to work, just wait,” Chanyeol says. “You married Baekhyun, you know how brilliant he is.”

Sookyung raises an eyebrow in disbelief.

“I married him, so I know exactly what dumb ideas he comes up with sometimes. I don’t get why you humor him.”

Chanyeol chuckles but doesn’t answer.

“You’re an idiot,” she repeats. “I miss Minseok.”

And Chanyeol doesn’t have any doubt that’s true. They all do, Chanyeol probably more than his friends, but he gets it. Minseok has always been a part of their group. When Baekhyun started dating Sookyung, it felt a little awkward.

Chanyeol didn’t like third wheeling but Baekhyun didn’t want to exclude him. So when Chanyeol met Minseok, he immediately became a part of their small inner circle. At first it had felt strange to include someone so new, but only after two months had Chanyeol realized he wanted Minseok forever and Sookyung had threatened him to never get rid of Minseok lest he left her in their company alone. It hadn’t been a problem.

“I miss him too,” he whispers and his heart aches at the thought. They stay in silence after that and Chanyeol forces himself to stop thinking of losing Minseok and instead hoping for the best.

When Baekhyun emerges, however, it’s with very slumped shoulders and downcast eyes.

“Well?” Sookyung asks, comforting hand on his shoulder contradicting her deadpan tone.

“She’s dead,” he says and looks up to get eye contact with Chanyeol. “I told the security guard I had arranged a meeting with Junghwa Kim like you said I should, and it took some time before he finally admitted she has passed away.”

Chanyeol’s brain stops thinking. This is information he cannot process right now. How did Junghwa die? If she is dead, then who is left? How are they going to get any information? How did she even die? It might not have anything to do with the virus, but she was Minseok’s coworker so there is a possibility that she, too, had been in contact with it.

Now that Junghwa is dead, however, he doesn’t have any means to confirm whether or not the accidental discovery was related to the virus. Chanyeol doesn’t know more of Minseok’s coworkers so Lab 32 is useless as a clue now. There is no way he’s going to get any information from that. Chanyeol also doesn’t know anything about Junghwa outside of her name and that isn’t enough to dig into her medical files.

It’s also illegal, but he guesses trying to find a terrorist with a deadly virus is also sort of illegal.

Baekhyun reaches a hand around Sookyung’s shoulder and she leans against his side. Chanyeol stares at them. His mind is still trying to figure out what to do with the knowledge that Junghwa has died, but as he watches his two best friends stand there, cuddling closer ever so slightly, his heart shrinks a little and skips a beat in fear. It comes like lightning from a blue sky, when he’s struck by strong feelings of loss.

Watching Baekhyun and Sookyung springs back memories, memories he doesn’t want to think about when the alternative right now is Minseok in the hospital. Memories that only cements how much he truly fears losing his boyfriend, because right now, there is only one couple in their friend group, one couple to be cringy and to mock for openly displays of love.

And Chanyeol is about to lose it all if he doesn’t find the terrorist, the anti-virus.

He turns around on his heels, tears threatening to spill down his cheeks, and leaves his friends on the sidewalk, calling after him. He doesn’t stop before he’s a good 3 kilometers from the lab and only when he stops, does he sit down and rethink everything.

\---

“Where have you been?”

Baekhyun is screaming at him in frustration, blocking the front door to his apartment. Sookyung leans against the wall, staring at him with a deadly glare.

“I tried calling you like 30 times!”

Chanyeol looks at his phone, interrupting Baekhyun for a few seconds. There are 37 missed calls from him and 3 from Sookyung.

“40 times,” he corrects and Baekhyun narrows his eyes in anger and worry.

“You fucking just left, you bastard! I couldn’t get ahold of you!”

“He made me call you too,” Sookyung intersects and Baekhyun sends her a glare for interrupting him.

“Point is, you left us while crying. We were just standing on the sidewalk, knowing nothing. Do you even understand what went through my mind?”

He’s seething but afraid. Chanyeol can hear it in his voice. Underneath the pure rage lies an undertone of worry.

“You should worry more if Minseok,” Chanyeol starts but he can’t get himself to finish.

“Don’t you dare…” Sookyung threatens and Chanyeol swallows a lump. Baekhyun crosses his arms in front of his chest and glares at Chanyeol.

“You’re not leaving my sight if Mins…”

“Don’t say it!” Sookyung shouts, very uncharacteristic of her. Both men look at her and she is holding herself, staring at them with a steel glance. Chanyeol nods.

Their neighbor peaks out of her front door in confusion and Sookyung sends her a small wave in apology for shouting.

Inside the apartment the silence is stifling. Baekhyun is still angry at Chanyeol for leaving, Sookyung is on edge with the thought of losing a close friend and Chanyeol is a little frustrated at the entire situation. He doesn’t want to say anything to aggravate Baekhyun more, so he broods in silence as he rethinks everything. He’s thought everything so often by now that it’s starting to make less sense than it did in the beginning.

His grief is clouded by determination, but he doesn’t dare voice it out loud with Baekhyun sitting in his armchair, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor. The wall clock in the kitchen indicates time ticking by until they all three sigh in unison and give up on keeping quiet.

“I’m sorry,” Chanyeol says, directed at Baekhyun. Baekhyun deflates a little and stops tapping his foot on the floor.

“I’m sorry too. I just got worried,” he says and Chanyeol smiles at him. He knows. It’s a best friend privilege to be worried and Chanyeol isn’t mad at him for worrying. Perhaps still a little frustrated with the 40 unanswered calls, but not his feelings.

“Do you still want to help me? I completely understand if you’ve had enough of my shenanigans. I get that I’m a bit frustrating to be around without Minseok to …”

He can’t say it. Voicing it out loud makes it real and Chanyeol has made a point of focusing solely on the search for the virus to avoid reminding himself of the grave reality. He may have spent weeks in the hospital but those are not in vain and he’s not ready to grieve just yet.

“You’re frustrating to be around when Minseok is here as well,” Sookyung says but there’s a light tilt to her voice and a small smirk on her face.

“And yes. You’re not going to face a guy with a deadly virus all by yourself.”

Baekhyun is also smiling slightly and Chanyeol’s eyes light up with friendly love. Sookyung pokes Baekhyun’s side with a sharp finger and he winces and looks confused at his wife.

“Who says it’s a guy?” she asks and Chanyeol chuckles as Baekhyun forgets his words. There is only one woman in South Korea capable of deliberately killing innocent people and thankfully Chanyeol is friends with her.

\---

“Hey Chanyeol,” Luhan says melodically and whistles a tune from the couch. Mei Tao sits at the kitchen table, peeling an orange and watching news on the TV.

“What are you up to? Is your boyfriend any better or still in the ICU?”

Chanyeol feels the sting in his heart but shrugs and grunts a non-committal answer.

“Oh, that bad. When are you coming back to work? Joonmyun is constantly complaining about partnering up with that… what was his name?” he asks towards Mei Tao.

“Chenle.”

“Yeah, that. New guy, very young,” Luhan says. “Anyway, Joonmyun misses you terribly even though he doesn’t say it like that.”

Chanyeol just shakes his head and turns back to the computer screen in front of him. He’s about to do something bad. Something that Joonmyun most definitely wouldn’t approve of, so he’s sort of happy it’s his Chinese coworkers here. Luhan might snoop over his shoulder and Mei Tao is usually very uncouth with everybody but her children but at least they’re not going to say anything or report him to the authorities for looking at medical files he shouldn’t be looking at.

Finding Junghwa proves a little difficult with only her name, but he eventually finds a Kim Junghwa, born in 1994, who is dead. He swallows a lump when he reads her age. Chanyeol can’t imagine what her parents might be going through, losing a daughter that young. Somewhere deep inside he hopes it’s a traffic accident or a long medical history of terminal disease, that has no relation to the virus. It wouldn’t help him in his search, but it might ease the pain of knowing he could’ve done something.

That they, the government, could have done something to prevent a 25-year old woman’s death. Cause of death is stated as cardiac arrest, but there are no prior mention of heart disease and her parents didn’t allow for an autopsy. She was found in her bed, but when the paramedics arrived, they concluded she had already passed away and there was nothing they could do to save her.

Chanyeol drags his hands over his face, lets them rest over his eyes for a second or two before he turns back to the lit screen and closes the program. While he can’t confirm for sure, cardiac arrest with no prior heart disease in such a young age suggests she fell victim to the virus, hypothermia getting the better of her. Chanyeol thinks of Minseok and how, if he hadn’t awakened in the middle of the night, it might have been him waking up to a dead boyfriend. A presence looms over his shoulder and a warm breath touches his ear.

“Whatcha doing?” Luhan asks and chews the last piece of his sandwich into Chanyeol’s ear.

“Ew, you’re gross, get away from me.”

Luhan looks affronted but leans back anyway. Chanyeol glares at him but doesn’t answer the question. Luhan is about to ask again when the alarm sounds and Mei Tao jumps from the table where she’s playing on her tablet.

“Fucking hell,” they hear her mutter. Luhan sends him a smile and shrugs his shoulders as he turns his back to Chanyeol and walks towards the ambulance. Chanyeol looks after them as they leave the station and feels a little sting in his heart, a dash of disappointment that it isn’t him that’s going to help someone in distress. He needs to get back to work again.

Sehee looks at him unimpressed when he stands in front of her. There’s silence between them even though the ICU is busy and noisy.

“How is he?” Chanyeol asks, smile tugging at his lips. Sehee raises an eyebrow.

“Condition stable, unchanged. Chanyeol, I know it hurts but you have to do something else with your life other than being stuck in the ICU. I promised you I would call if there was even the slightest change in his condition.”

Chanyeol winces a little.

“I know Sehee and I have been doing other things.”

She scoffs. He ignores her. He has been doing other things. He hangs out with Baekhyun and Sookyung occasionally as he tries to unravel the whole virus-thing that the government doesn’t take seriously.

“I’m going to see Minseok.” He passes the reception desk and ignores her eyes on his back. Dressed up and standing in front of his boyfriend, Chanyeol lets out a shaky breath. There’s a steady sound of the machinery all around Minseok, a distressing promise that nothing has changed. He lets a gloved finger over his face, lets it run down his forehead, onto the tip of his nose before he traces the philtrum and lets it rest on his lips. He wants to dip down and kiss them, but at the same time he doesn’t want the cold, unresponsive kiss.

He wants Minseok to wake up like a fairytale and kiss him back, tell him he’s being foolish and stupid for worrying so much, but Chanyeol isn’t that dumb and so he settles for a kiss to the top of his head. He doesn’t care if someone is looking in through the door to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Chanyeol is too far gone in love with the man in the hospital bed in front of him.

“I love you. I’m going to find the bastard who did this to you.”

When he leaves the ICU Sehee looks after him, audibly sighing.


	6. SIX

_Woman, 63 years old, COPD, shortness of breath, chest pain. Imun-ro 43-gil. _

Joonmyun looks at Chanyeol with a smile and a question in his eyes. Chanyeol returns the smile and grabs his orange coat and jumps into the ambulance. They haven’t talked about Minseok and Chanyeol has no intention of starting now. He might be able to talk when he finds the cure, but right now he’s here to work and get his mind onto other things. 

An old smoker with COPD and a possible heart attack is a great way to focus on something else. 

Joonmyun drives the ambulance. They arrive 15 minutes later, Chanyeol bringing the oxygen tank with him. The woman is sitting in her armchair, heaving for breath. Joonmyun is trying to talk to her, but all he gets are gasps. There’s a home oxygen tank in the corner, mask abandoned on the floor and a pack of cigarettes proudly displayed on the coffee table. Chanyeol wants to scoff, but he keeps it in. 

Some people are too ignorant of their diseases to care too much. They load the woman into the ambulance and helps her with oxygen and brings her to a nearby hospital for a check-up. They have only just cleaned the ambulance when another call sounds. Chanyeol couldn’t be happier that his day is busy. 

The apartment is too empty. There are no pitter-patter of feet greeting him, no welcome-home kiss, no food on the table. Just silence and cold memories. There is no boyfriend to hug and bury his face into, no warm scent to soak in. No one to ask him how his day has been and no one to force him to talk about the traffic accident that killed a father and his young son. Chanyeol sits on the couch and stares at the black television. 

The sounds from outside are oddly muted and the streetlights cast shadows into the room. He can hear their neighbors grandfather clock ring 7 times, indicating 7 PM. Then he cries. He doesn’t know if it’s the trauma of the accident earlier or the entire situation without Minseok, the empty apartment and the disappearance of normalcy, but it gets to him. 

Burying his face into his hands he continues crying, loud sobbing resounds in the silent apartment and no one cares. When there are no more tears to cry, he has fallen asleep.

A loud blaring sound cuts through the silence. Chanyeol reaches towards his phone and accidentally pushes it to the floor. His back is aching from the position he has slept in and his eyes are sensitive to the sunlight shining through the living room windows. It’s far too bright for a Chanyeol who has just awakened. His phone keeps ringing. He flops a hand on the floor and tries to locate it but ends up pushing it further away. 

It stops ringing, only to start again a couple of seconds later. Damn it. He turns around on the couch, almost toppling over and falling onto the floor, as he squints against the light and finally gets his phone. 

“Did you just wake up?” the voice on the other end asks accusingly and Chanyeol fumbles with his words. It’s unnecessary, though, because Sookyung has a purpose with her call and it isn’t making sure Chanyeol is awake.

“I have a question,” she continues and Chanyeol sits up. He ruffles his hair and tilts his head so he can hold his phone between cheek and shoulder and gets up. 

“Question about what?” he asks, still not fully awake. He can hear Sookyung roll her eyes at him, but he disregards it. The kitchen feels miles away as he bumps into the coffee table and the bookcase on his way. 

“What are you doing?” she asks instead of elaborating on whichever question she has. Chanyeol sighs and presses ON on the electric kettle. It starts boiling whatever water is left inside and Chanyeol rummages through the cupboard to find his favorite mug, the one Minseok gave him as a joke that says ‘World’s Best Dad’.

“Making a cup of coffee.” The kettle finishes with a pling and Chanyeol continues making his cup of instant coffee. Sookyung scoffs at him. 

“It’s already 7.45, decent people have already been awake a couple of hours,” she says and Chanyeol would’ve snorted if he wasn’t exhausted and still groggy with sleep. 

“Only military people wake up at 5 on their days off.” He ignores her comeback and continues, cutting off her complaint. “What was it you wanted to ask?” 

There’s rustling from the other side. Sookyung isn’t really done complaining about how it’s stupid to sleep in but Baekhyun hushes her from the other side and Chanyeol hears something that sounds like a kiss to shut her up. He smiles a little and sips from his coffee. 

“A friend of mine...” she says but gets silenced again by another kiss and rustling sounds as the phone is taken from her. There’s movement, like the one holding the phone is walking away, and when there’s silence in the background Baekhyun speaks instead. 

“Sookyungs police friend found a blog from a person furious with the government,” he says in a conspiring low voice. Chanyeol grabs his phone with his hand and stretches his neck. 

“What’s that got to do with the virus? There are probably a lot of people who hate the government.” 

Baekhyun snorts. 

“Blog writer mentions they want to do the perfect crime.” 

Chanyeol still doesn’t get it. His silence is enough to portray his confusion. 

“Chanyeol,” he starts. “The perfect crime would be to kill the government with a virus that can’t be tracked and according to her friend, the blog also contains a lot of posts that are relevant to the virus. I think it’s a good start to look into whoever wrote the blog if we can find them.” 

It doesn’t dawn on Chanyeol how a person who hates the government could be behind an attack on Lab 32, even long after his coffee is downed. 

\---

The sun is shining from a blue sky and flowers are slowly starting to power through the cold soil. Small leaves begin their growth on the trees and the grass smell of life. The city is bustling and busy as always, sirens and honking in the distance from the main roads and children playing noisily around the elementary schools. 

He passes a small restaurant and a photo on the newspaper in the window catches his eyes. Chanyeol doesn’t get to read the title, though, because the door opens and startles him. To avoid questions, he hurries along the road. He forgets the newspaper photo and convinces himself it was nothing important. When he reaches Shinsegae mall, he stops and stares at the large TV. 

In the bottom flashes a yellow line with the words BREAKING on it. 

_Attack on Lab 32, South Korea’s leading research facility. It has come to our attention that many of the employees have fallen deathly ill with an unknown man-made disease. Some have already passed away. The government is on the case but says it’s unlikely to affect the rest of the population. They don’t have any further comments. Stay with us as we follow the case as it develops. _

Chanyeol stares at the reporter on the screen, standing in front of the iconic glass doors that says Lab 32. A woman bumps into him and complains loudly but Chanyeol doesn’t say anything. He’s just looking at the news that is looping. There is nothing new to add to the story. It has been two and a half weeks, and nothing has happened. 

His phone is ringing but it takes Chanyeol a minute before he registers and by then he has 3 unanswered calls. 

“Did you see the news?” is the first thing Baekhyun asks and Chanyeol can only nod to confirm. “I take your silence as a yes,” he continues. “Do you think the CDC is going to take the case more serious now that this is followed by the media?” 

Chanyeol grimaces and turns his back to the TV and stares at the front of an Etude House. 

“I don’t know Baekhyun. Why did they wait two weeks if it has any importance to them? I don’t trust them. How did the media even get this information?” 

They talk for a couple of minutes. Chanyeol feels a little conflicted. Baekhyun is begging him to let it go for a short while, see if the government is going to take the virus serious now that there is potentially public panic and more victims. Chanyeol doesn’t trust the CDC to get on with the case when he knows how long they’ve spent not caring about his boyfriend. He wants to continue looking for the terrorist and the creator of the virus even though the task may seem impossible in a country of 52 million people. 

Their best lead is the blogger who’s furious with the government and even though Chanyeol wasn’t initially seeing the connection, it’s all he has to go with. They end up compromising. Baekhyun promises he will help Chanyeol continuously search for the blogger and if the CDC manages to take the case serious and come up with a solution, they’ll stop their search.

When Chanyeol hangs up, the TV news has changed to a new story about a celebrity couple who’re getting a divorce and he continues on, long strides quickly removing him from the scene. 

\---

Baekhyun has sent him a link to the blog and Chanyeol has spent the good two-thirds of the day reading blogpost after blogpost trashing the government. The blogger sounds furious and absolutely capable of hurting people. There is no background story on the blog as to why the blogger hates the government as much as they do.

The blogger calls themselves Chen but when Chanyeol googles the name he learns it’s a common Chinese name. Finding a South Korean who’s hiding under a common Chinese name isn’t going to be very easy. The more Chanyeol reads, however, the more curious he grows. Even if this doesn’t lead to the terrorist, there is definitely an angry person behind the blog, and he wants to know what made them so angry. 

He listens to the silence around him, only disturbed by his computer battling all the dust it has collected and refocuses on the computer screen. The sun has set long ago, and he hasn’t bothered turning on the light. The blue light from the screen is straining his eyes but Chanyeol continues on. 

When he wakes up, he regrets reading until late at night and with a heavy sigh, he drags his slim body off of the bed he has gotten used to without Minseok. It hurts to think like that, but it’s been three weeks with Minseok in the hospital and at one point, Chanyeol got used to the cold bed and the extra space. He grabs the sink when he enters the bathroom and stares at his reflection in the mirror. 

There are the beginning of dark circles under his eyes and his hair is messily standing in every direction. He also looks a little pale, but he disregards that. When he turns away from the mirror, he deliberately forgets how he looks. 

Joonmyun isn’t late to remind him that he looks awful. He questions Chanyeol’s ability to work and his sanity within 2 minutes but Chanyeol tells him only the bare necessities. He needs the daily schedule that comes with work and he doesn’t want to go back to sick leave and forget himself in his quest to find the cure. 

They don’t talk about Minseok and Chanyeol ignores the worried glances Joonmyun sends him every now during the shift. He doesn’t need the pity and he doesn’t want to involve his partner in his slightly illegal search for the cure and how little he trusts the government to come up with an answer. 

Towards the end of their shift, they get busy with an epileptic child in seizures and both of them forget their personal life to remain professional. 

“Guess who?” says Baekhyun when he sneaks up behind Chanyeol. They’re in front of the ER where Chanyeol has just gotten off his shift. He turns around and raises an eyebrow at Baekhyun who just smiles widely, mischief shining in his eyes. 

“Wasn’t difficult,” Chanyeol answers and Baekhyun rolls his eyes but the smile stays in place. “What are you doing at the hospital?”

Baekhyun wraps his arm around Chanyeol and drags him towards the parking lot and his car. 

“Fetching my best friend. It’s Thursday and Thursday dinners are still a thing. Also I was visiting my friend in the ICU, asking him to wake up.” 

It takes a few seconds before Chanyeol pieces together that Baekhyun is talking about Minseok. He doesn’t get to react much, however, because by then they have reached the car and Baekhyun is letting go of him to unlock it. 

“Climb aboard,” he says happily and swings the key twice on his finger before he opens the door to the driver’s seat and climbs inside. Chanyeol lets his fingers drum the roof of the car before he climbs in. 

They’re exiting the parking lot in silence before Baekhyun breaks it again. 

“I asked for help with tracking the blogger. Remember Sookyungs friend Byulyi in the police who found the blog and started investigation?” he asks and Chanyeol wrecks his brain and comes up with nothing. He shakes his head and Baekhyun sighs. “Doesn’t matter then. She found an address they are going to investigate but I was thinking, let’s be faster than the police.”

Chanyeol stares at him dumbfounded. 

“This is not some stupid cartoon where the heroes are faster than the police. You’re literally giving away police information,” he says and Baekhyun rolls his eyes and turns onto the main road. 

“Byulyi gave Sookyung the information herself. It’s not like I hacked the police database to get it.” 

“And Byulyi probably thinks Sookyung is a reliable friend,” Chanyeol counters, not wanting to say anything about Baekhyun’s abilities as a hacker. 

“Too bad for Byulyi that Sookyung is also worried about Minseok and annoyed with the CDC not doing anything. I honestly also think Byulyi doesn’t like how long it’s taking, especially with the media coverage nowadays. Anyway, take it or leave it.” 

And Chanyeol doesn’t say more, just leans back in the seat and lets Baekhyun carry out his dreams of being police for a day. 

The address leads them to a house in Bukchon. Neither of them have spent a lot of time in the neighborhood and it takes them a few tries to find the right address, even with Baekhyun’s GPS. The sky is eerily grey, threatening to pour rain as they stand in front of the door, waiting for someone to respond to their knocking.

An elderly man peeks out of the door when it opens 2 minutes later. Chanyeol immediately feels strong doubt. This was a bad idea. Baekhyun doesn’t feel deterred by the man’s appearance and proudly presents himself and asks if he lives alone in the house. 

The man shakes his head and opens the door enough to gesture towards his wife standing behind him. She raises an eyebrow suspiciously towards them and before Baekhyun gets to say anything more, Chanyeol interrupts. 

“I’m sorry to disturb, sir. I think we might have the wrong address.” 

Baekhyun protests loudly, but Chanyeol is both bigger and stronger and grabs his wrist and firmly but politely drags his friend away with a bow to the elderly couple. Out of earshot, Baekhyun turns towards his best friend in anger. 

“Why did you do that? You could’ve had Chen!” he whispers angrily. Chanyeol almost chokes on his own saliva. 

“You don’t seriously think that’s Chen?” he asks. Baekhyun rolls his eyes and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

“Who knows?! Old people these days know a lot more than you’d think.” 

Chanyeol starts laughing and Baekhyun glares at him, mumbling angry profanities. 

\---

Byulyi sits in front of a computer, the blackboard behind her full of numbers and lines and stuff Chanyeol doesn’t understand. Her long brown hair is straight down her back and a pair of black-framed glasses sits on top of her small nose. She looks deeply concentrated with whatever is on the computer. Chanyeol feels extremely out of place. Baekhyun is dressed in a brown-striped suit, expensive briefcase in hand and hair styled messy. He jumps onto the table next to Byulyis computer and she glares at him without removing her fingers from the keyboard. 

“What do you want Professor Byun?” she asks, voice deeper than Chanyeol had expected. 

“Call me Baekhyun,” Baekhyun says and Chanyeol is positive it’s not the first time he has said that. “This is my friend, Chanyeol. The one who is also looking for that government-hating blogger.” 

She looks up and Chanyeol feels himself shrink a little. She’s intimidating. Why are all the women in Baekhyun’s company so intimidating when he’s the least intimidating person on Earth? 

“Ah, the one doing police work,” she says and returns to whatever she’s doing on the computer. 

“Uhm, I’m Park Chanyeol,” he greets her, and she frowns. Chanyeol guesses that’s her only response. “I was thinking … do you think it’s possible there are more addresses connected to the blog?” 

The noise from around them seems to drown in the tension in the small police computer room. The wall clock keeps ticking away over the door. Then Buylyi hands over a piece of paper without looking at the two men. She urges Chanyeol to take it silently and he does so. 

“I knew you’d come back,” she says and sends another glare towards Baekhyun. “Now shush, I have work to do and you don’t have this information from me.” 

Her eyes are back on the computer screen. Baekhyun jumps off the table, takes the paper from Chanyeol and skips out the room. Chanyeol is just staring at the police officer. He doesn’t notice Baekhyun has left the room and he doesn’t care that Byulyi is sending him less-than-subtle glares. How could she possibly know he would come back? He’s trying to find an answer when he feels a hand grab his wrist and pull him along towards the entrance. Chanyeol barely gets to ask before Baekhyun has answered his question.

“I texted her,” he says and Chanyeol stops walking in the middle of the hallway to stare at him. 

“What are you waiting for?” Baekhyun shouts back towards him when he realizes Chanyeol isn’t following.


	7. SEVEN

What is he waiting for, Chanyeol asks himself as he sits on a dining chair in their kitchen. The sink drips, water droplets creating a rhythmic melody and the wall clock ticks along. A map is spread out on the kitchen table and a bowl of half-eaten cold ramyun sits next to him. Chanyeol has been thinking a lot in the last couple of days. 

The addresses on the paper Byulyi handed him has been circled on the map. They’re all public places with the exception of the house in Bukchon. Seoul Metropolitan Library, Ehwa Women’s University, National Museum of Korea, COEX shopping mall. There is even a red mark around Hangang Park in a spot with free public wifi. Whoever is behind must use public computers and public wifi's to ensure nothing traces back to them. Everything leads back to the house in Bukchon. 

Chanyeol doesn’t understand it. The old man and his wife certainly seemed like they had little grudge against the government – and he’s not even sure they’d understand how to use a computer. No, it’s definitely not the old couple. 

Baekhyun’s words keep messing with him, though. Chanyeol drags a hand through his hair and rests his cheek against the tabletop, crumbling the map in the process and pushing the ramyun a little further away with his shoulders. If only he could figure it all out. 

\---

This is a genuinely stupid idea. That is what Minseok would have told him had he not lied before him under a dozen of blankets and life support hooked up to his system. 

“I’m doing this for you,” Chanyeol whispers, afraid Sehee or one of the other nurses might hear him. There has been no news from the government, but he still visits Minseok. It’s out of love, he tells himself. He wouldn’t be here without Minseok either way, so stopping by is the least he can do. Besides, this idea he’s gotten will keep him away from the hospital for a couple of days. 

He leans down to kiss his boyfriend when he remembers he’s not allowed to touch him with his bare skin and instead grabs his fingers, wraps them together and closes his eyes as he lets his heart speak for him. 

\---

The car is an invisible black in a neighborhood of black cars. The back seat is full of snacks and sandwiches from the local convenience store and Chanyeol is sitting in the front seat, sunglasses on and radio on low volume. His phone died a couple of minutes ago after one too many YouTube videos and now he has nothing to do but hum along. 

A stake-out is probably the worst idea he could come up with and yet he still sits in his car, waiting for something to happen. It takes another two songs before Chanyeol grows restless. He leans against the steering wheel, careful not to press the horn and closes his eyes for a second or two. 

When he wakes up, it’s 30 minutes later and his neck hurts from the position. Dammit, he thinks, when he realizes he’s been asleep instead of just casually blinking and he straightens out, leans against the backseat and cracks his neck to release the tension. 

By then it’s almost 5 PM and people start returning home from work and daily chores. A woman who looks to be in her 40’s drags two large bags and a child with her, and she greets an elderly man in his 70’s with a small smile. This feels like a completely different part of Seoul but Chanyeol knows that only a kilometer or two away runs the main road with all its cars and flashy signs. 

His stomach grumbles and he absentmindedly reaches out towards his phone only to realize it’s still dead. Instead of grieving his loss of communication to his friends, he turns around in his seat and grabs a sandwich from behind. He’s munching happily when the door to the house he’s looking at opens. Chanyeol holds his breath for a second before the elderly woman steps outside and he deflates against his seat. 

Time goes by awfully slow and Chanyeol is about to snooze again when he’s interrupted by a knock on his window. He bashes his head against the rearview mirror in his haste to roll down the window. An officer is looking at him from the other side, head cocked in question. The name tag on his uniform says officer Cha. His black hair falls slightly into his deep brown eyes and he’s bowing down awkwardly to be eye level with Chanyeol. 

“What are you doing, sir?” he asks and Chanyeol fumbles with his sunglasses and drops them between the gear box and the seat. 

“Uhm,” he answer intelligently. He can’t say he’s on a stake-out, that’s creepy and would probably land him in trouble but what other good excuse does he really have with food on his back seat and sunglasses, now between seat and gear box. Officer Cha narrows his eyes as he takes in the state of Chanyeol’s car and waits for an answer. 

“I got lost,” Chanyeol answers meekly after a few seconds. Officer Cha raises an eyebrow in suspicion. 

“Where are you going, sir?” he asks. He’s still taking in the state of the car and his suspicion doesn’t lessen at all when Chanyeol whispers “Gangnam”. 

“You’re far from Gangnam, sir. If you just follow this road and turn right when you get to the next intersection, you’ll find the main road.” 

Officer Cha still isn’t fully convinced about the truth of Chanyeol’s whereabouts, but he doesn’t say anything. Chanyeol, embarrassed at being caught at his stake-out, just nods and thanks the officer for directions before he turns on the car and drives away. He only turns right at the intersection before he stops the car and lets his head rest on the wheel. 

Another person knocks on his car roof and Chanyeol only slowly lifts his head, almost expecting to see officer Cha again, but this time it’s a smaller man, hair dyed auburn and permed. His smile radiates and his eyes scrunch up a little to give way to the smile. 

“You okay?” he asks, and his voice is melodic and flows almost like a song. Chanyeol sighs and shrugs a little. 

“No. Do I just continue on this road to get to the main road?” he asks, and the stranger blinks a little confused, smile falling from his face.

“Hey, you want to talk about it?” Chanyeol isn’t sure, he really wants to talk about it, but for some reason he doesn’t deny the request and the stranger changes his position, so he stands more comfortably. The small bag of groceries he was holding is now placed on the ground between his legs as he waits for Chanyeol to spill his worries. Chanyeol takes his sweet time getting to his worries, though. It feels strange, uncomfortable, to just relay his mind to someone he hasn’t met. A few minutes pass in silence before he ends up shaking his head. 

“I’m sorry.” Chanyeol doesn’t know exactly why he’s apologizing but it feels right. The stranger just shrugs a little and leans down to get his groceries again. 

“Anytime. Looking for the main road, were you? Hit right at the next intersection and you’ll get to Bukchon-ro. That leads to the crossing between Samil-daero and Yulgok-ro if you’re heading south.” 

The stranger sends him a kind smile and steps away from the car to let Chanyeol move along but Chanyeol doesn’t start the car. He just kind of stares at the other man. 

“I’m Park Chanyeol. I’m sorry to ask, but do you live in this area?” 

The stranger laughs a little. It sounds as melodic as when he speaks. He tilts his head just slightly, just enough for Chanyeol to notice and when he’s done laughing, he smiles again. 

“My grandparents do. I come here often to help with groceries and housekeeping. Kim Jongdae,” he says and Chanyeol nods. 

“Thank you for helping.” 

“Anytime really. If you’re in the area and want to talk, I’ll probably be at the Jeongdok public library. Come find me.” 

With those words, Jongdae starts walking away with the groceries and Chanyeol starts the ignition and drives away. He turns the music up as he drives onto Bukchon-ro and the trip back to Gangnam is filled with something that isn’t the usual apathy and hopelessness that resides in Chanyeol.

There are 23 text messages and one unanswered phone call waiting for him when he gets home and plugs his phone back in. The texts are from Baekhyun, talking mindless stuff and links to a few articles the media has written on the whole Lab 32 outbreak. The unanswered phone call has Chanyeol’s gut sink to his feet. 

It’s a Seoul number he has dreaded on his call list and fear washes over him. He sinks to the floor, staring at his phone that goes back into black screen. This might not be bad news, he tells himself in a whisper. This might not be bad news. This is definitely bad news. What other reason would make the hospital call him? 

Chanyeol prays as he sits there, phone in hand. He can feel desperation rise within him, cloud his thoughts and he starts slightly shaking as he suppresses the tears that threaten to spill. He doesn’t want to cry, doesn’t want to grieve in advance. When he finally finds the courage to call back, he’s put on hold for several distressing minutes. It’s Sehee who greets him when it finally goes through. 

“SNUH, the ICU, Oh Sehee speaking, how may I help you?” 

She sounds so professional and Chanyeol chokes up where he sits. He has to take a few deep breaths and swallow the lump that’s threatening to cloud his voice before he speaks. 

“It’s Chanyeol,” he says and takes another deep breath before he continues. “You called me earlier?” 

There’s paper rustling on the other end and someone shouting for help.

“Oh yes, Chanyeol! You should come here as soon as you can. Minseok’s status hasn’t changed, so don’t worry, but there’s something you need to hear from dr. Cho.” 

Chanyeol’s heart skips a beat or two at the words. He leans back against the wall, neck craning to reach and he closes his eyes while he swallows. 

“What is it?” he asks her, and he can almost hear Sehee roll her eyes. 

“Dr. Cho will talk to you when you get here.” She shouts to a coworker and Chanyeol wipes his wet cheek with a thumb before he slowly lifts his head from the wall. 

“I can get there in about 30 minutes,” he says and Sehee confirms before she hangs up to go help a colleague with a patient. Chanyeol stays seated on the floor for a minute. Thoughts are running rampant in his head, tears are still threatening to spill and instead of getting off of the floor and down to the garage, he calls Baekhyun and only barely manages to ask if he has time to pick him up and drive him to the hospital. Baekhyun is busy, so it’s Sookyung who accompanies him. 

They enter the hospital in silence. It feels like forever before they reach the ICU and even when they get there, Chanyeol doesn’t feel entirely present. He’s staring at the floor, taking deep breaths and willing himself to stay calm. Sookyung pats his shoulder every so often to comfort him. He hasn’t told her that he’s here on specific request from dr. Cho. A new nurse mans the reception desk when they enter, and she looks at them with sharp eyes. 

“Name?” she asks and Sookyung speaks up before Chanyeol gets to. 

“Park Chanyeol, he’s with Kim Minseok in room 28.” 

The nurse looks through her papers before she nods and points towards the room. Chanyeol knows the way all too well with Minseok having been hospitalized for a month now. They only get to the entrance before they’re stopped by a tall resident. 

“This way,” he says and guides them towards a smaller room. It is decorated with comfortable chairs, a mahogany coffee table in the middle. The walls are a pale yellow. It looks like a conference room of sorts, one in which people get bad news. That thought freezes Chanyeol on the spot. Bad news. This looks like the room where people get told their loved ones have died. Sookyung looks towards him confused as she sits down in one of the chairs and relaxes. 

“What’s up?” she asks worried but Chanyeol is too afraid of what he’s about to hear to answer her. He can’t deal with Minseok’s death. Sehee said that his condition hadn’t changed but Chanyeol doesn’t trust her. This is all wrong. He’s about to turn on his heel and leave the room when the door opens again and dr. Cho steps inside. 

“Ah, Chanyeol! And Mrs. Do,” dr. Cho greets. He gestures towards the chair and Chanyeol reluctantly sits down. He’s sitting on edge, holding his breath as dr. Cho brings a chair around so he can face them. He smiles kindly and Chanyeol feels his lungs struggle for air and he gasps in a breath. Sookyung looks at him concerned, hand finding his shoulder. He doesn’t dare look at her, though. Dr. Cho places his papers upside down. 

“I spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Kim earlier. Minseok’s one kidney is starting to show signs of deterioration from the ECMO and it may only be the beginning of organ failure. It has been almost a month already. I know it comes as a hard decision to make but from a medical standpoint, I think it’s time to let Minseok go and remove the ECMO. I can’t do that without consent, of course, and I technically only need Mr. and Mrs. Kim’s consent, but I wanted you to know as well. You should talk to your parents-in-law. Without a change in condition, there isn’t much I can do, however.” 

He taps Chanyeol’s thigh once, twice, before he grabs his papers again. Chanyeol feels his breath hitch and anger bubble in this stomach. Dr. Cho is looking at him, head tilted slightly in question as if asking how he’s taking the news. Knowing that Minseok’s fate isn’t in his hands anymore makes him angry. 

He thins his lips and fists his hands, knuckles turning white in the process. They can’t take Minseok off of life support. That’ll be the end before he has even had a chance to try again. Why isn’t the CDC doing more? 

Chanyeol wants to ask, the question burns in his throat, but he can’t voice it. Emotions are swirling in him, the anger dying and sadness taking over, only to power through once again. No. Someone has to do something. They can’t just give up like that. He has to convince his parents-in-law this is not the right thing to do. They’re going to kill Minseok if they take him off of life support. Chanyeol won’t stand idle by their side while they kill his boyfriend. 

When Chanyeol doesn’t say anything dr. Cho gets up and sends Sookyung a small smile before he leaves them. Only when the door has closed behind him does Chanyeol look up from his white knuckles and faces Sookyung. 

“No,” is all he says as he stares at her. She holds eye contact, not one to bow down. Her gaze is full of fear and worry but also determination. Chanyeol is feeding off of her emotionally, her stoic façade fuel to his determined anger. 

There is no way anybody is taking Minseok off of the ECMO. Chanyeol doesn’t go down without a fight.


	8. EIGHT

Minseok’s parents still live in Guri where he grew up. They’re living in a small red brick house, close to the Guri Hangang Park that is full of blooming flowers in March. They light up the blue sky with their purple and pinks and as Chanyeol walks past he remembers the times they have spent together, walking through the park in spring and summer. It’s full of powerful memories that only make him more determined to get to the bottom of this – and an attempt at saving Minseok most definitely means keeping him on life support. 

Chanyeol walks through the park, watches the flowers and the river to gain a little confidence in what he’s about to do. He likes his parents-in-law, he does, but still it takes courage to stand against them and ask them to do the opposite of what doctors have advised. He’s going to do exactly that, though. 

When he knocks on the door, it’s Minseok’s father that opens. He looks genuinely surprised to see Chanyeol there but invites him in, nonetheless. Minseok’s mother is cooking in the kitchen, gloved hands full of red spice as she makes a new batch of kimchi. She smiles and greets him enthusiastically like he isn’t here to discuss the future of their son. 

His father-in-law urges him closer to the bookcase to show him a new book he has just bought, historical fiction he enjoys very much and hopes Chanyeol will love as much as he does. They used to talk about books often, whenever they visited. In Chanyeol, Minseok’s father found another man passionate about literature that had nothing to do with chemistry and he has kept the interest alive. Chanyeol just indulges him now, standing in the living room, smiling. 

For some reason, Minseok’s childhood home has always smelled like home. It’s always warm and welcoming and homely. For those exact reasons is it so much harder when Chanyeol sits down in the kitchen and asks his father-in-law to come join them. 

“I spoke to dr. Cho yesterday,” he says and both of Minseok’s parents stiffen. 

“Yes dear - and?” Minseok’s mother says and continues slowly stirring her hands in the kimchi to keep herself occupied. Minseok’s father clears his throat. 

“He said Minseok’s one kidney is starting to show signs of being on the ECMO for a month and that he talked to you guys about stopping treatment.” 

They both look towards other things but Chanyeol. Except the wall clock ticking away there is absolute silence around them. He can almost hear his heartbeat and blood rush past his ears. 

“Yes, it’s…” It’s Minseok’s father this time. “Dr. Cho said it was the only option left.” 

Chanyeol suppresses his anger. It’s not their fault that dr. Cho is starting to give up hope. How they can succumb to the idea of just letting Minseok pass away, though? Chanyeol is never going to understand that. 

“If we take him off of life support, he’s going to die. There’s no way his organs can sustain themselves without the ECMO if he doesn’t respond to treatment.” 

Chanyeol can feel how frustration wells up in him and clouds his words with a harsh undertone. He doesn’t want to scold his parents-in-law, he just wants them to keep Minseok alive. That’s really all he wants. Minseok’s father sighs deeply and lifts his head so he can look at Chanyeol. There are wrinkles in his forehead that wasn’t there before his son fell ill. 

“What if he never responds to treatment?” he asks and Chanyeol feels blood drain from his face. 

“What if he wakes up with no function left?” Minseok’s mother says, voice low and shaky. Chanyeol doesn’t notice the tear that slowly finds its way down his left cheek. 

“Please don’t say that. I promised him I would find a way. Don’t take him off the ECMO,” he whispers. Minseok’s mother slowly takes off her gloves and puts them down. When she comes close enough, she wraps Chanyeol in a strong embrace.

“I know I said we had to be strong for Minseokkie, but sometimes being strong means letting go,” she whispers into his hair and Chanyeol sniffs. 

“No,” he whispers back. No. Being strong doesn’t mean letting go. Chanyeol doesn’t think he’ll ever let go of Minseok, alive or dead. He chokes back tears and brings a hand up to wipe his eyes even though he’s still squashed against his mother-in-law in her warm hug. He doesn’t like feeling like a child that needs to cry, doesn’t want to show them weakness like this. 

And although Chanyeol has cried throughout the time Minseok has been hospitalized, has cried more than he’d like to admit, there is something so strong about the grief in Minseok’s childhood home. It’s like they have already decided they’ll never get their son back, that this is goodbye, and it seeps into Chanyeol like a leech and drains him of energy, of hope, and he can’t stop the tears. He keeps wiping them away and they keep appearing like he’s a fountain. 

“Let’s not make any hasty decisions,” Minseok’s father says and Chanyeol leans back from the embrace and looks towards him. “Let’s keep him on the ECMO.” He looks towards his wife. “Maybe there is still hope.” 

His eyes pray for something short of a miracle and Chanyeol vows he will either find that miracle himself or he will force the government to find it. He’s not ready to say goodbye just yet. 

\---

The café is quaint and nice. There are myriads of flowers on the wall and hanging from the ceiling, small tables and chairs of different styles scattered across the room. The desk is tucked in the corner and in the middle is a small display of baked goods one can purchase. There’s pop music flowing from the speakers in the corners and the coffee scent wafts gently through the air. 

Chanyeol sits in a corner, tucked away, nibbling to his focaccia bread and sipping his coffee when the door slams open. Sookyungs long hair is put in a high ponytail and it swishes dangerously as she stalks her way towards him. Her face is locked in neutrality, lips a thin line and eyes staring right ahead of her. 

She walks with the grace of a lioness stalking her prey and she’s heading in Chanyeols direction. She sits down gracefully in front of him, and her eyes turn to slits. 

“You,” she hisses and leans over the table. She’s intimidating. “How dare you take trusted police information and go on a stake-out?” 

Her voice is sharp and authoritative. Her face doesn’t show the depth of her anger but that just makes her even more terrifying. Chanyeol doesn’t know what to answer so he shrinks away. She’s still staring at him, waiting for him to say something. 

“Sorry,” he whispers, but that doesn’t satisfy her in the least. 

“Sorry?” She’s mocking him. “Start using your fucking brain. Have you any idea of how much trouble you could’ve put both of us in if anyone had figured out that you had confidential police information and used it to do something as stupid as a stake-out? What do you think you are? A hero?” 

Chanyeol shakes his head and Sookyung leans back in her chair. She’s still glaring at him, lips still a thin line. None of them say a word and in the background is BTS singing their latest pop-hit in the radio. 

“Tell me,” she says. “Do you think you’re a hero?” 

He shakes his head again and Sookyung hisses “out loud” with such venom that Chanyeol has no doubt he’s getting the same treatment he would if he was a useless Private in her battalion. 

“No.”

“Good. Now stop acting like it!” Chanyeol whimpers. It surprises him that he’s able to whimper like a small puppy that has done something wrong, but he’s never been subjected to Sookyungs pure rage. She might have been mad at him before, but never like this. Never with her eyes saying it all, no hint of a smile, no emotion astray. Sookyung has full control of her body and her emotions and that scares the heck out of Chanyeol.

“I know you want to fight for Minseok, but this has got to stop. Immediately. No more police work, no more stake-outs. No more leads. No more fighting terrorists on your own or with my husband.”

“But…” he says meekly and Sookyung fixes him with a stone-cold glare. 

“No buts.” 

She looks him in the eye, holds his attention just long enough to know her words have cemented themselves in his brain before she rises from her chair. 

“No more,” she says, finality in her voice as she leaves him alone. Chanyeol slumps over the table, coffee cold and focaccia bread dry. 

\---

It’s a lovely day in March. The sun is shining from a blue sky, the temperature is high for the season and birds are singing their songs of love around him. The parks are full of people relaxing and the streets are busy with lives being lived. 

Chanyeol has the day off, much to his own chagrin. He spent the morning in the hospital with Minseok, he hasn’t heard from Baekhyun and Sookyung after she got pissed with him and Joonmyun is too busy to hang out. He walks mindlessly around, feeling a little empty and a lot bored. He hasn’t done anything to search for the terrorist and has put his faith in the CDC, even though he still doesn’t trust them. 

Minseok’s parents have promised to keep him on the ECMO, at least for now, and while dr. Cho isn’t shy to announce his disagreement with the decision, he doesn’t try to convince them otherwise. It’s difficult to lose a beloved family member.

Chanyeol stops when he passes the same restaurant for the third time and sighs heavily. There has to be something he can do on a day like this. It’s 3.30 PM when he decides to go back to the apartment and on his way, he remembers a stranger that was willing to listen. It takes a couple of tries to find Jeongdok Public library. Chanyeol honestly doesn’t believe he’s going to find the stranger, whose name he’s forgotten, but even so, a library might just be the place for him. The scent of old books and new ink sends a smile to his face. 

The librarian is young. She has a book in her lap as she looks up to send him a smile. He heads straight for the fiction, looking through what Minseok fondly would have described as women’s novels. It’s just those books he likes best. He’s flipping through a couple of books, when he finds a soft armchair and sits down to read. 

Chanyeol goes back the next day after his day shift ends and finds the same soft armchair and a couple of new books. 

He’s completely invested in the main character getting her prince charming, when a smooth hand lands on the pages. He jumps a little in surprise, head snapping up to look at the intruder and sees a grinning face surrounded by black hair. It takes a few seconds before Chanyeol connects the dots and recognizes the stranger in front of him. 

“You scared me!” he accuses light-hearted and the stranger, Kim Jongdae, laughs out loud. 

“I told you I would be here. What are you reading?” Jongdae asks and leans over Chanyeol’s book trying to read it upside down. Chanyeol laughs and with a finger in place, he turns the front cover over so Jongdae can read the title. _The Unhoneymooners_ shine in black and blue on the yellow front cover and Jongdae raises an eyebrow in surprise before he lets another smile take over. 

“Romance, huh?” Chanyeol nods.

“Yeah, I like to get far away from my reality once in a while and what’s better than a good story about a couple that falls in love?” Jongdae sits down in the chair opposite of Chanyeol’s and leans back. 

“Well, I don’t know? You’re single or?” Chanyeol raises an eyebrow in surprise and then barks out a chuckle. He shakes his head. Does he look single?

“No, no. I’m in a very happy relationship.” He glosses over his boyfriend being very sick for now. The definition of their relationship hasn’t changed because Minseok got sick. 

“What do you prefer reading then?” he asks Jongdae. He puts the book down on his lap and leans back against his own chair, getting comfortable in their conversation. Jongdae tells him he prefers murder mysteries, that his favorite book is _The Postman Always Rings Twice_ but that he sometimes strays from the crime to read horror.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, tells Jongdae about his romance novels, about how all the happiness and drama lets him disappear from real life problems and how the happy ending always gives him a little hope. 

They talk about books neither of them like and books both of them have enjoyed and when the conversation strays from literature they move from the comfortable seats in the library to a small corner park. 

“So you’re a paramedic?” Jongdae asks and Chanyeol nods. He takes a deep breath of clean air and listens to the distant traffic. He can hear birds singing from behind him and swallows fly over the old traditional roofs. 

“Mh-hm, what about you?” Jongdae stares in front of him and Chanyeol sends him a curious smile. 

“I’m a chemical engineer,” he says rather silently before he turns around to smile back at Chanyeol. Their conversation so far has been lighthearted and easy. It’s refreshing to talk about literature and forget about life for a moment. Jongdae is easy to talk to; he has a charm to him that makes it so easy to trust him and just talk. It helps that so far, they haven’t been talking about anything particularly private. 

“Oh,” Chanyeol says. “My bo…” and then he hesitates. He has no idea how Jongdae feels about homosexuality and he’d rather not mess up a potential new friendship because he’s revealing something too controversial about himself too soon. On the other hand, a friendship built on lies isn’t a friendship that’s worth pursuing and when Chanyeol inevitably has to say that he’s gay their friendship might shatter regardless. It might be safer to say it sooner rather than later. It’ll hurt less. Still, he can’t get himself to say boyfriend, anxious it’ll will cause the conversation to turn sour too soon. 

“My partner is a chemist,” he says instead and Jongdae widens his eyes in surprise. 

“Really? What a coincidence!” 

Chanyeol nods. 

“Does she teach?” Jongdae goes on and Chanyeol feels discomfort well up in him at the prospect of continuing a lie. 

“Uh… No,” he says. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before he opens them again and focuses on the bird song behind them. “Research. Are you still single?” 

It’s a long shot to change the conversation, but Chanyeol feels a lump in his throat and hopes that Jongdae will get the hint and stop asking about his boyfriend. He just can’t get himself to correct the lie from she to he. Jongdae’s face clouds over and sours, his lips thin and his gaze finds the ground in front of them. 

“I’m a widower,” he says. It doesn’t leave much room for questions and Chanyeol understands and yet he feels so many questions well up at him. The first one being, how old is Jongdae even? He looks far too young to be a widower. The second thought that strikes him is that he, too, could be a widower – way too young at that. He swallows harshly. 

Silence envelops the two men as they sit on a bench, surrounded by traditional houses and greenery. It’s not until a few minutes later when a cell phone rings that they speak again. Jongdae excuses himself to pick up his phone and Chanyeol is sorting through various excuses that he must leave for home in his mind. He doesn’t have to use any, however, because when Jongdae hangs up he sends Chanyeol a charming smile, memories of the past few minutes forgotten. 

“My grandmother needs me, so I’ll have to go. You coming back to the library again tomorrow or?” he asks and Chanyeol widens his eyes in surprise. 

“You want to still talk with me?” Jongdae laughs. It’s contagious and Chanyeol feels the corner of his lips curve upwards. 

“Of course, I still need to get you hooked on murder mysteries.” Chanyeol shakes his head in disbelief with a huge smile on his face.

“Good luck with that.” They part ways near the library. Chanyeol finds his car and for the first time since Minseok got hospitalized he listens to Deux as he’s driving home.

\---

_Man, 78 years old, severe headache, facial hemiparalysis. Suspected stroke. Symptoms onset one and a half hours ago. Bukchon-ro 11da-gil. _

The trip to Bukchon is oddly familiar for Chanyeol, but he doesn’t dare voice it out loud as they speed through traffic to get to the patient. Time is of utmost importance and every minute counts. Joonmyun curses when cars in front of them doesn’t care to move aside and he has to maneuver dangerously to move forward. Chanyeol ignores him for the time being, stares out the front window and tries to prepare himself to the task they’re heading towards. 

Modern high rises give way for traditional housing as they move into Bukchon and Joonmyun tries to locate the house with the GPS. When he finally parks the ambulance, Chanyeol feels frozen in place. The front yard is well kept and very familiar. A woman opens the door and waves frantically with her hands before she rushes into the house again. 

Joonmyun is fiddling with the stretcher and calls out towards Chanyeol, eyebrow raised in question. He shakes his head and opens the door, willing memories of him and Baekhyun to the back of his mind and puts on a professional façade. He’s here in a noble errand and his patient can’t afford to lose time because he can’t stay on the right track. 

As they enter the house, he looks up and finds the elderly woman wrapped in an embrace and he recognizes the man holding her. Jongdae lets go of his grandmother and shows the way to the bedroom where his grandfather is currently sitting, holding his head in his hands, lips drooping. Chanyeol works almost robotically, only registers the answers to Joonmyun’s questions but doesn’t really listen to the conversation around him. He’s too focused on Jongdae.

Joonmyun punches his shoulder when he’s done questioning and sends him a glare. Chanyeol shakes his head to get back in the game and moves to stand up, helping the elderly man onto the stretcher. He gives out information about the hospital they’re about to drive to so Jongdae and his grandmother can follow before they load the elderly man into the ambulance and starts the drive towards the hospital. 

“Where the hell were your head?” Joonmyun shouts the second they sit in the ambulance again after having sent the elderly man on his way in the hospital. 

“I … I’m sorry,” is the only thing Chanyeol can manage. Joonmyun massages his temples and sighs deeply. 

“Is it still Minseok?” he asks, voice no longer raised. Chanyeol turns to Joonmyun in shock, eyes wide and mouth dropped open. Joonmyun just stares at him, waiting for an answer. 

“No, it’s … No. Minseok is fine.” 

“Did he wake up?” Joonmyuns voice is soft, almost a whisper. He’s pitying him. Chanyeol feels his heart twitch a little. It’s an unpleasant feeling, being pitied. 

“No, he didn’t. He’s still in a coma, but he’s fine. It had nothing to do with Minseok; I’m just tired. I’m sorry I wasn’t there fully, I’ll do better.” 

He closes the conversation as he faces the window and crosses his hands in front of his chest. Joonmyun sighs but doesn’t say anything. They don’t get far before the next call comes and they head off towards a burn victim. 

The wind is stronger than expected when Chanyeol gets off work. Clouds are looming in the sky, black and threatening with rain. He wraps his scarf a little closer around his neck and buries his hands in his pockets. When he looks up, he gets eye contact with someone he hasn’t seen or spoken to in a couple of days. 

“Hey,” Baekhyun says sheepishly when Chanyeol gets close enough. Chanyeol smiles a little. 

“Sookyung got mad at you too?” he asks and Baekhyun winces. 

“You have no idea. How dare I let you in perdition and plant stupid ideas in your innocent mind?” he says, imitating his wife. He scoffs with a chuckle and Chanyeol laughs out loud at the imitation. He can only imagine Sookyung, hands on her hips, glaring at Baekhyun while she scolds him. They both know better, though. Baekhyun might have had the silliest ideas when they were in college, but it was almost always Chanyeol who acted on them spontaneously. Chanyeol has gotten himself in trouble since he was in kindergarten.

“Anyway, how are you? She mentioned dr. Cho let it slip that they were going to take Minseok off the ECMO.” 

Baekhyun’s gaze softens and Chanyeol tries to fight the façade he has had up the past couple of days. They’re walking towards his car in silence and when they reach it, Chanyeol puts his hand on the roof and turns towards his best friend. 

“Yeah, it seems dr. Cho has given up hope. I convinced Minseok’s parents to keep him on life support. I can’t lose him now.” 

He sends Baekhyun a glance of determination. Baekhyun smiles softly. 

“Of course. Don’t ever give up on him,” he says and walks around the car to the passenger seat. He climbs into the car and Chanyeol blinks in succession in confusion. He doesn’t react until someone taps the car window from the inside and he sees Baekhyun smiling widely, leaning over the gear box. Baekhyun moves over as Chanyeol gets in. He’s still smiling.

“Thursday,” is everything he says and Chanyeol chuckles. How could he forget?


	9. NINE

Minseok lies on his bed, still as ever, and Chanyeol sighs as he reaches out to take his hands. He has asked Sehee if he can bring his own bedsheets for Minseok’s room but has been denied. Instead he has brought a small bouquet of Himalayan blue poppies to familiarize the hospital room. 

There is a knitted blanket strewn over the chair next to the bed, a gift he suspects is from his mother-in-law. On the windowsill stands a small frame and when Chanyeol picks it up to look at the picture, he recognizes his own proud smile and a happy Minseok beside him. They’re dressed in tuxedos, Minseok holding a large bouquet in one hand and Chanyeol’s hand in the other. Happiness radiates off of them, palpable through the picture. 

It was taken when Minseok passed his Ph.D. with flying colors. Chanyeol had never been prouder of his boyfriend in that moment. He remembers Minseok’s mother shedding tears behind her husband as she fussed with his sister and his father trying to hush them so he could take a nice picture. 

They had been laughing so much that day as they went out to dinner with Minseok’s family. When they’d gotten back to the apartment, Chanyeol had pulled out a small gift from his pocket and kissed his cheek. Minseok had giggled, told him he was crazy for spending money on a gift but Chanyeol had been persistent. Getting a Ph.D. was not for everybody and the surprise on Minseok’s face when he opened the gift and saw the expensive watch, had been more than enough to prove that Chanyeol had made the right decision.

“Remember this?” he says out loud and turns the photograph towards Minseok on the bed. “How happy you were. You were so nervous before your doctoral dissertation but there was no reason to be. I always told you, remember? That they couldn’t possibly fail you for your work. You stayed up late for many nights.” 

He sits down on the chair, photo still in hand and turns it back towards himself so he can stare at their happy faces one again. 

“Remember your sister demanded we take her out for dumplings now that we were actual adults with jobs. We never did get to take her out, did we? It’s been years now. Do you think she still remembers?” 

The vital sign monitor starts ringing out its alarm and Chanyeol’s eyes snap immediately to the machine. There is nothing disturbing shown, however. Minseok’s vital signs are as they have been the entire time he’s been in the hospital. A nurse enters the room to turn off the alarm and sends Chanyeol a smile. When she leaves, he reaches out to wrap his hand around Minseok’s. 

“We should take her out when you wake up. I love you. Please wake up. I can’t do this without you. Minseok, please.” 

He can feel the tear that finds its way down his cheek. He hasn’t been crying for weeks so why now? Angrily he wipes it away with the back of his hand and then focuses back on Minseok. He looks so peaceful. He doesn’t care about the world as he lies there in a world of coldness of his own. 

Sehee enters a little later with a wet cloth and a hairbrush and Chanyeol leaves her to her work, even when she suggests he does it. He doesn’t think he can do it, knowing Minseok won’t be there to complain about his roughness or kiss him to make up for the jokes. Instead he leaves the hospital, heart heavy with memories yet again. 

\---

Chanyeol finds himself in Jeongdok Public Library once again, browsing through books lightly but he has another purpose today. He’s looking for Jongdae, fingers only gently touching the back of the books as he goes through row after row, shelf after shelf in search of the black-haired boy. He has almost given up when he spots someone near the audiobooks. When he gets close, he stops for a few seconds, rethinks the entire thing but ultimately decides he has to go forward.

“Hey Jongdae,” he says. His voice sounds so loud in the quiet of the library and Jongdae jolts a little at the sound in surprise. He smiles when he turns around towards Chanyeol, though, and gives him a nod. 

“Didn’t see you there,” he says and puts down the audiobook CD he’s holding. Chanyeol smiles. 

“I was wondering if your grandfather is okay?” 

Chanyeol is genuine, even if he’s also a little curious. He knows that police work had that house under investigation for a little while, hell, he even met the old man himself with Baekhyun by his side and he want to know the connection Jongdae has to it all. He still can’t fathom the old man himself as Chen. Jongdae scratches his neck and ruffles his hair. 

“Fine. Better. Doctors said it was a TIA so he’s recovering well. He wanted to send you guys chocolate for helping him, but … I convinced him to send it to the doctors and nurses instead.” 

Jongdae sounds a little sheepish and laughs afterwards. Chanyeol’s smile grows. 

“What a shame. Joonmyun would’ve loved some chocolate. I’m glad he’s doing better, though.” 

They chuckle. Jongdae gestures towards the chairs and Chanyeol dutifully follows. They sit down in comfortable silence. Jongdae is fiddling with his shirt sleeve. Chanyeol observes him as he wrecks his mind to find a way to ask the one question, he’s here to get an answer to. It’s hard, though, to pretend he knows something about a government-hating blog that links to his grandparents’ home without revealing he’s been doing an illegal stake-out based on confidential police information. 

It’s also difficult for him to find a way to bring it up without mentioning Minseok and revealing he’s gay, something Chanyeol so far has kept hidden. He also doesn’t want to stir up silence or questions about Jongdae’s partner that made him a widower – but not saying anything doesn’t give him an answer.

“Hey, did you see the news recently?” Jongdae asks when he finishes fighting with his sleeve. Chanyeol stares at him in question. 

“What news?” 

He feels dumb. No, Chanyeol hasn’t watched the news recently because he’s been too focused on Minseok, but he doesn’t want to admit that. He silently hopes Jongdae is referring to some dumb news about famous people, because Chanyeol never follows those. They’ll make him even dumber, Minseok tells him – Chanyeol believes him. 

“The nephew of North Korea’s dictator wants to meet with the president. Some say he’s asking for help to flee the country.” 

Chanyeol lifts an eyebrow in surprise. He hadn’t heard that. 

“I thought the dictator’s family was well-fed and cared for,” he says in a questioning voice. Jongdae shrugs a little and smiles. 

“So did I. But they’re also just rumors. Would be wild if there was actually some truth to them, though. Imagine that, a member of the North Korean dictatorship seeking refuge in South Korea.” 

He chuckles at the thought and Chanyeol can’t help but feel the corners of his lips move up. 

Jongdae launches into a new topic and leaves Chanyeol to give the right response and it only has Chanyeol’s mind going back to his dilemma of asking a suspicious question in a way that doesn’t give him away. He never gets to find an actual solution, however, because the same time he asks Jongdae if he can ask a question, Jongdae rises from his chair and excuses himself.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly. “I really do have to go, but - wanna get lunch tomorrow? You can ask me then?” 

Chanyeol nods. 

“Yeah, sure, fine. Have a nice day!” 

Jongdae leaves without more words and Chanyeol sinks back in his chair. He might still be curious; he might still be suspicious but he’s also not able to find a way to ask. 

\---

Baekhyun knocks twice before he enters the apartment as usual. The lights are on in the living room and Chanyeol sits on the couch, staring at the movie playing, bowl of popcorn in his pajamas clad lap. 

“I can’t believe you started without me,” Baekhyun says mock-offended and throws his keys at the taller man. Chanyeol splutters and almost chokes on a popcorn before he flings the keys back towards Baekhyun. They end on the floor.

“It’s a different movie,” he wheezes between coughs to get the popcorn back up. Baekhyun just rolls his eyes and plops down on the couch, placing bags of chips on the coffee table. They have movie night once every month or so. It used to be more often but then they both got partners and full-time jobs and to keep Thursday dinners a regular thing in their schedule, movie night had to suffer a setback. 

Chanyeol has downloaded multiple action-thrillers and horror-movies onto his tablet and Baekhyun is changing into his pajamas from his place on the couch. 

“It’s like being back in college,” he says enthusiastically. He settles on the couch when he’s finished, drags the blanket closer and rests. Chanyeol laughs out loud at the memory but he agrees. It really is like being back in college, back when everything was so uncomplicated. Back to when it was only he and Baekhyun, without partners, without jobs, without adult responsibilities. Just the two of them, best friends watching movies that would scare them long into the night. Chanyeol appreciates movie night a whole lot more with nostalgia coursing through his veins. 

They’re lying in the living room, Baekhyun on the couch and Chanyeol on the floor, with the lights turned off and only the moonlight shining in through the curtained windows. The scenes from the horror movies still flashes by every minute or so, making them shudder in the darkness. It’s always a little difficult to fall asleep. Chanyeol’s mind, however, is mostly occupied with the thought of Jongdae and the government-hating blogger that lives in his grandparents’ house. He’s about to ask Baekhyun what he thinks when he hears light snores from the couch. Chanyeol sighs and stares at the ceiling. He doesn’t get much sleep. 

\---

“What would you do?” Chanyeol asks a cold Minseok. He doesn’t get a response but he’s getting used to that by now. It helps just imagining a conversation, just voicing out his problems to the man he loves the most. He has a lunch-date with Jongdae in a couple of hours and still, he seeks out Minseok to help him figure out what to do. He isn’t of much help, though, because the usual logic that Minseok brings to a conversation just eludes him when he’s silent and Chanyeol has to think for both of them. 

A knock on the door behind him has him turning around and dr. Cho walks in with a smile on his face that turns to mild sympathy when he sees Chanyeol. 

“Oh hello,” he greets and Chanyeol feels his fingers tighten their hold on Minseok’s hand. “I’m afraid we’ll have to send you out for a while. We’re taking Minseok to surgery.” 

Chanyeol widens his eyes in surprise. He hasn’t heard anything of surgery. They narrow to confusion but that doesn’t give him any answers either. Dr. Cho just opens the door wider to reveal a nurse and an orderly. 

“Wait! Surgery?” he asks and doesn’t let go of Minseok’s hand as they all file into the room. He only narrowly avoids standing up to protect his boyfriend from intruders coming to take him away. 

“His left kidney has suffered so much damage from the ECMO that we have to remove it. Leaving it would cause necrosis and a lot of damage. He’ll be back in a couple of hours. I suggest you do something productive while you wait around. Do you want Sehee to give you a call when he’s out of surgery?”

Dr. Cho is noting things while talking. Chanyeol blinks and swallows a lump. Everything seems to go by in a blur. The orderly removes his hands gently and takes the bed, the nurse helps Chanyeol stand and guides him from the room to the reception desk and dr. Cho tells Sehee something in passing before they all disappear to do new things to new patients and Chanyeol feels stuck in the middle of the hallway. 

It makes perfect sense to remove a bad kidney, but he feels lost without Minseok and for some reason, fear of him never returning, strikes him as lightning from a blue sky. He almost sits down right there on the floor but then realizes he can’t. He can’t be a child about this. He’s been adult enough to survive the two and a half month Minseok has been admitted to the ICU in a coma-like state, he can’t suddenly let go of his responsibilities now. 

The large wall clock slowly ticks life back in him and as Chanyeol exits the hospital and breathes fresh air he feels somewhat less hopeless, somewhat more ready to take on whatever life throws at him. Well, if only it wasn’t this. 

\---

Jongdae sits in front of a computer, very occupied with whatever he’s doing, and he doesn’t notice Chanyeol’s footsteps coming closer. Instead of calling out to him like he usually would, Chanyeol decides to sneak up on his new friend. Except as he gets closer, he notices the black background on the screen from somewhere. He squints his eyes and tries harder to read the text, slowly inching forward because he doesn’t want to surprise Jongdae and have him close whatever tab he’s on. 

The red text is striking against the black and he’s almost standing right behind him when he realizes where he has seen it all before. Chanyeol gasps, loudly, and Jongdae turns around in surprise and quickly closes the tab. Chanyeol has seen enough, though. The red text, the striking username, the words and the slurs.

“What the fuck?” he exclaims loud enough for the librarian to hush him. Jongdae raises an eyebrow but he doesn’t look particularly fazed. 

“What?” he asks and Chanyeol sees red. There is no evidence the blog – and now Jongdae – has any connection to Minseok in the ICU but Chanyeol lets anger well up, nonetheless. The anger, the hatred – the fear of losing the love of his life clouds the edges of his vision and he almost hits Jongdae square in the face. Instead he fists his hands until his knuckles turn red. Jongdae leans back in the chair, surprise gone and replaced with nonchalance. He crosses his arms across his chest and the stare he sends Chanyeol shows nothing of the kindness and friendliness he has gotten used to. 

“You…” he stammers, unable to find his words. This is the answer to his question. 

“I?” Jongdae repeats, mocking him. Chanyeol glares at him but only receives a glare back. The budding friendship between them has disappeared within seconds. Chanyeol can’t find words to describe his anger, so instead he punches Jongdae in the face. 

When his fist connects with Jongdae’s nose it throws it out of position. Jongdae gets up from his seat, ready to retaliate when the librarian hurries towards them and chastises them for fighting. They’re kicked out of the library and she threatens to call the police if any of them dare set foot in her library again.

Chanyeol doesn’t care much, he can beat Jongdae outside the library as well. Jongdae, however, starts walking away, hand holding his broken nose. When Chanyeol realizes his answers are walking away, he hurries after him. It only takes a second from Chanyeol grabbing hold of Jongdae’s arm to a fist lands on his face, bruising his eye and his cheek. He feels slightly dizzy, but he holds on. 

Jongdae doesn’t go down without a fight, however. 

A couple of bruises, a metacarpal fracture from a punch into the wall and a shallow cut from a ring later, Jongdae and Chanyeol rests against the wall of the library. They look hideous, but they’re too exhausted to continue fighting and more than one passer-by has shouted threats of calling the police towards them. 

“What does it matter to you if I hate the government?” Jongdae asks, his voice cold. Chanyeol closes his eyes and rests his throbbing head against the cold bricks behind him. 

“I …” he says and takes a deep breath. “Why do you hate the government?” 

He can hear Jongdae scoff and sniff.

“They killed my wife and my daughter. A freak accident caused by lazy engineering that nobody cared for because it was the cheaper option and the government covered up those responsible.” 

Chanyeol stays quiet for a few seconds.

“I’m going to kill them. All of them,” Jongdae says before Chanyeol can respond. When he opens his eyes and looks towards the other man beside him, there is fire in his cold eyes, determination strong and scary. 

“I’m …” Chanyeol starts but doesn’t know how to continue. 

“You’re what?” Jongdae spits. “Sorry? Hah, the government will be sorry when they’re dead.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to media? Made a big deal out of it?” Chanyeol asks and Jongdae scoffs again, only to sniff blood back into his broken nose. 

“Nobody cares. That’s why they’ll all have to die.” 

Chanyeol doesn’t know why he asks but he asks Jongdae to elaborate on his death threats. Hearing Jongdae talk about his loss has Chanyeol feeling sorry for him. He has almost forgotten that the blog is the reason he punched Jongdae in the first place. Jongdae’s answer, however, has chills running down his spine. Despite being exhausted and hurting, Jongdae’s words have Chanyeol’s hands fist against his side and he’s near ready to throw another punch at the man beside him. Jongdae doesn’t seem to care too much about Chanyeol, filled with his own desire for revenge. 

“You’re killing my boyfriend,” Chanyeol says. His voice is stone cold, and he doesn’t care about homophobia. With Jongdae proudly explaining how he created a dangerous virus to kill the government in their sleep, letting them suffer, Chanyeol realizes Baekhyun was right all along. The blogger had everything to do with Minseok’s illness. Jongdae raises an eyebrow in disinterest and looks at Chanyeol, noticing his hands. 

“He’s not dead yet?” he asks and Chanyeol sneers. 

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” 

“The virus needs to be better.” 

It takes a split second and Chanyeol grabs Jongdae’s shirt, not caring about the pain in his hand, and threatens him in a whisper. 

“You will cure my boyfriend and you will leave us alone afterwards.” 

When he lets go, Jongdae just stares at him unimpressed. 

“Is that it?” he asks and dusts his shoulder off. “I’m afraid that can’t be done because you will go to the police and send me to jail and if that happens, I will kill your boyfriend for certain.” 

The silence is heavy between them.

“If I promise not to go to the police, will you cure him?” Chanyeol asks in a whisper. Jongdae shrugs.

“No promises.” 

It earns him another black eye. 

A police car drives past and stops a couple of meters away. The officer that exits the car looks at the two of them in disgust. Chanyeol tries to neaten himself but he doesn’t succeed much.

“Hey officer,” Jongdae says and stands up. “Anything wrong?” 

He’s smiling, charming, in spite of the dried blood on his philtrum and his black eye. Chanyeol scrambles up to stand as well. The officer tilts his head in obvious annoyance. 

“Are you done fighting? I will bring you in if you don’t get off the streets this second,” he says and Chanyeol nods and bows 90 degrees. He apologizes as he grabs Jongdae’s wrist to keep him from running away and drags him towards his car in the library parking lot. He drags Jongdae with him and forces him into the passenger seat and locks the doors the second he’s in the car as well. Jongdae scowls at him. 

“What do you want?” he sneers. Chanyeol leans against his car seat and sighs. 

“Cure my boyfriend.” Jongdae snorts.

“Does he mean that much to you?” Chanyeol nods. 

“Cure him or I will report you to the authorities.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes and instead of retaliating names an address and sinks back into the seat. Chanyeol’s hand is starting to hurt a lot by now. Jongdae doesn’t say anything as the car starts and they drive towards the address. 

It’s a small house on the outskirts of Bukchon, red bricks and a green roof like every other house around. A trash bag sits in front of the iron gate, waiting for the garbage truck, and a lonely pear tree stands in bloom in the small front yard. Jongdae leads him down a couple of stairs to the basement apartment and Chanyeol stops in the doorway, staring at the interior. It’s dark and clinical. A mattress is resting in the corner, the kitchenette is dirty, and the rest of the room is full of tables and chemical instruments Chanyeol has never in his life seen.

He recognizes a Bunsen burner from high school chemistry but then gives up and forces his attention back to Jongdae. The smaller man is opening a shelf and taking out a small vial. It’s labeled with a flame to indicate it’s flammable. Chanyeol automatically reaches out towards it but Jongdae removes it away.

“Ah ah,” he chides. Chanyeol narrows his eyes. “If you mention my name to anyone, I will send the finished version to kill your boyfriend.” 

The threat is strong in his voice. It would be foolish to doubt it, but Chanyeol has only one goal – saving Minseok. 

“I won’t.”

The anti-virus exchanges hands and Chanyeol leaves. He drives directly to the hospital.


	10. FINAL

“What on Earth happened to you?” Sehee exclaims when she sees him. Chanyeol smiles and shrugs. She glares at him and points at the exit. “You go to the ER and gets seen before you go to see your boyfriend.”

Chanyeol tries to sneak around her, but she’s sticks out an arm and prevents him from going around. He whines and Sehee raises an eyebrow.

“The ER,” she repeats, glancing down at his hand that is turning blue and black. Chanyeol gives up and heads back out of the ICU, vial still snug in his pockets. The wait time in the ER is longer than expected. It doesn’t help that he’s waiting in Radiology either and after 4 and half hours, he has his arm in a cast, two stitches on his cheek and an ice pack for his black eye.

Sehee is getting off of work when he returns but she shakes her head at him.

Chanyeol sits by Minseok’s bed when someone knocks on the door. Sookyung sighs deeply when she sees him. Baekhyun widens his eyes in surprise.

“What the hell Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asks when he shuts the door behind him. Chanyeol waves him away with his casted arm.

“Doesn’t matter,” he says. Sookyung sits down beside him and reaches out to touch Minseok’s hand gently.

“Any news on him?” she asks silently. Chanyeol sniffs a little.

“They removed his one kidney earlier; couldn’t handle the ECMO. I haven’t heard anything new.”

He doesn’t know how to tell them about the cure in his pocket. He doesn’t know if he wants to tell them about the cure in his pocket. He doesn’t want to make more people accomplices to the crimes Jongdae is intending on carrying out. It’s enough that he knows someone with the intent of murder and doesn’t report them to the government. Chanyeol is risking everything but nothing is more important than Minseok. Sookyung sighs again and Baekhyun rests his hand on her shoulder.

“He’ll wake up,” he promises. They all know it’s an empty promise because Baekhyun knows nothing of medicine and certainly not enough to make promises like that.

“But seriously, what happened to you?” he asks Chanyeol again and he sighs, lifts his arm to show his cast.

“Punched a wall and fractured my hand,” he says and Baekhyun laughs in surprise.

“The wall punched back?” he asks and points towards the black eye. Chanyeol doesn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer.

They go back to lighthearted talking when Sookyung suddenly stands up and rushes towards the toilet. Chanyeol sends Baekhyun a look and when he interprets it, his eyes widen in surprise and disbelief. Chanyeol smiles softly and watches as Baekhyun joins his wife in the bathroom to help her clean up. Chanyeol turns back to his boyfriend and feels a burden lift from his heart.

When his best friends leave them alone and the evening shift nurse leaves after taking Minseok’s vitals once again, Chanyeol fumbles with his pockets and picks up the little vial. He walks to the sink, steals a syringe and a needle. It’s difficult to open the sterile needle with a hand in a cast but he somehow manages. Struggling he finally succeeds in drawing the anti-virus into the syringe and checking the window in the door, he injects the solution into Minseok’s IV-bag and hopes for the best.

\---

It’s dark outside. The alarm clock on his nightstand shows 3.24 AM in red and he’s still awake. Wind is howling outside, uncharacteristic of spring. It feels like it’s foreshadowing disaster. He has been checking his phone every five minutes and has been reading half a book before he had to give up and succumb to his thoughts. Chanyeol doesn’t want to admit it to himself, but he’s terrified that he hasn’t heard anything from the hospital.

He keeps repeating Jongdae’s words when he handed the anti-virus over and keeps wondering if it was actually an anti-virus. Maybe he was too naïve when he injected it without confirmation. Maybe Jongdae had given him the lethal virus, killing Minseok instead to prove his intentions to Chanyeol. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Chanyeol rolls around in bed, kicks at the satin sheets and curses as sleep fails him and rain starts slamming against the window.

He’s exhausted when the sun rises at 5.45 AM, having only slept 30 minutes the entire night. The wind is still howling, but the rain seems to have stopped. Instead of lying in bed, Chanyeol gets up. He brews himself a strong cup of coffee and sits at the counter, staring at his phone. The sun slowly rises behind clouds and he keeps staring at his phone, fumbling with dumb games and social media he doesn’t care about. The only thing he cares about is someone calling from the ICU, telling him that Minseok is waking up.

Chanyeol falls into a light slumber, hanging over the kitchen table, cup of cold coffee forgotten. It’s around 9 AM when his phone rings, vibrating to the edge of the table. He groggily opens his eyes, fumbles with his body as he does his best to pick up. He doesn’t register the number calling, only mumbles out a half-asleep greeting.

“It’s Oh Sehee from SNUH.”

Chanyeol sits straighter in his chair but manages to almost tumble the coffee cup over in the process.

“What is it?” he whispers. The hope, the prayer, is obvious in his voice. Chanyeol can’t wait to hear the words he has been awake to hear. He prays Sehee delivers the news he wants and not the ones he dreads.

“Minseok is responding to treatment,” she says and Chanyeol sighs deeply in relief. “We don’t know what happened overnight but we’re treating aggressively, and his temperature is slowly rising. If all goes well, I think they’re going to slowly take him off of the ECMO and see how he responds. You should come down”.

He agrees, tears streaming down his face in disbelief. It worked, he tells himself over and over again. It actually fucking worked.

Driving to the hospital with little sleep and teary eyes is not a good idea, but Chanyeol does it anyway, hoping he won’t get caught by police. He also manages to get there without getting into an accident. His long legs carry him to the ICU in what feels like a heartbeat, running to get to his boyfriend.

He’s met with nurses walking briskly to and from Minseok’s room, doctors talking in the doorway and he doesn’t get to take a step towards his room before he’s embraced by a woman smaller than him. She’s sobbing into his chest, clutching him closer. Chanyeol recognizes the short black hair and the man behind her and wraps his arms around Minseok’s mother to reciprocate the hug.

“It’s a miracle,” she whispers. Minseok’s father is removing the tear that’s falling down his cheeks and sniffs a little to pretend he’s stoic. Chanyeol doesn’t care about displays of masculinity and lets tears flow freely again. It’s all in relief and happiness.

“It’s a miracle,” Minseok’s mother says again and lets go of Chanyeol to hold him at arm’s length. “He’s waking up.”

Chanyeol nods but can’t say anything. His parents-in-law are beaming, happiness unrivaled and relief emanating from every part of the ICU. Dr. Cho meets them near the reception and brings them all to the small conference room. This time it doesn’t look like bad news. He sits down with a big smile on his face, looking at the way Minseok’s parents hold each other and Chanyeol smiles widely.

“I’ll let you in to see him soon, I promise.” Dr. Cho chuckles and watches them all with a smile. “I don’t know what happened overnight, but it seems Minseok started responding to treatment sometime around 2 AM. We’ve been treating rather aggressively, and his temperature has now risen to 33°C so we’re slowing down the aggressive treatment and doing passive rewarming as we’re slowly taking him off of the ECMO. We don’t know if he has suffered any brain damage from the hypothermia or the ECMO so don’t get your hopes up too high.”

Chanyeol looks towards his parents-in-law, who soaks up dr. Cho’s words like sponges. He’s still smiling, not caring too much about hopes up too high. His hopes and dreams are already through the roof at the idea of Minseok being alive, being here, being awake.

They’re allowed in the room a little later, no gowns, gloves or masks needed as Minseok is no longer under isolation. A nurse is recording his vital signs as a resident slowly takes Minseok off of the ECMO. The ECG prints records of Minseok’s heart beating steadily as his lungs inhale and exhale air. Minseok’s mother sinks into the chair beside the bed and grabs his hands. Minseok’s fingers twitch and Chanyeol holds his breath.

When his boyfriend slowly turns his head and opens his eyes, Chanyeol feels his heart skip a beat and a tear trail down his cheek. Minseok’s voice is hoarse from no use and his body is stiff. His muscles have shrunk, and he’s lost weight but he’s alive and smiling, albeit a little confused. He’s shivering under the heated blankets and soaking in the hospital setting.

His parents have cried over him, held him and kissed him and left again to get something to eat. Chanyeol sits down beside him and smiles. That’s all he can do, smile in relief.

“Hey,” Minseok croaks and reciprocates the smile. Chanyeol’s heart soars and he leans down to kiss Minseok’s forehead.

“I love you,” he says and lets a finger trace Minseok’s forehead. Minseok’s smile turns into a frown and he narrows his eyes as he continues looking at his boyfriend.

“What happened to your face?” he asks and Chanyeol removes his finger from Minseok to touch his own face and winces when he touches a particularly sore spot around his black eye.

“Oh.” He flushes a little, embarrassed to admit to fighting. “I got in a fight, but it’s nothing. I’ll be fine soon enough.”

Minseok just looks at him. Chanyeol sighs and promises once again that he is okay, he will be fine, Minseok doesn’t have to worry. Minseok’s worry doesn’t seem to lessen, but he shakes his head at Chanyeol’s obvious stupidity to get into a fight to begin with.

A nurse interrupts them when she arrives to take his vital signs and his temperature. She informs them that Minseok is scheduled for an MRI the next day and replaces cold blankets with new heated ones. Minseok snuggles closer under his covers and nods. Dr. Cho has tried to explain what has happened in the past almost three months but Minseok isn’t able to process it all at once, so they have agreed to take it slowly.

Chanyeol gently sneaks his hand under the covers to find Minseok’s and link their fingers. The squeeze he gets in return has his heart soaring and he leans down to press another kiss onto Minseok’s forehead.

The MRI miraculously doesn’t show any brain damage and the physiotherapist comes to work with Minseok as soon as his temperature stabilizes in the normal range. His first steps to the door and back to the bed is on unstable legs, but he is determined to make a full recovery and Chanyeol is by his side every awake minute of the day. He has taken a week of vacation and dr. Cho has once again arranged for a room at the patient’s hospital, so he doesn’t have to leave the hospital.

Baekhyun and Sookyung visit a couple of days later, Minseok sitting in his bed.

“It’s so good to see you!” Sookyung exclaims when she sees Minseok awake, eating a cup of soup. He almost spills when she lunges to throw her arms around him in a very unusual display of affection. Baekhyun and Chanyeol share a look of wonder and surprise and Minseok laughs, hoarse and beautifully. When she lets go, she sits down on the chair and Baekhyun echoes her words with a greeting of his own.

Chanyeol just watches his best friends and his boyfriend talk about everything and nothing. Sookyung tells him about her promotion even though it’s starting to get old and Baekhyun tells fascinating stories about university life. Minseok soaks it all up, the normalcy of it all even though he’s in the hospital. He teases them back like they tease him and Chanyeol sputters out an unexpected laugh when Minseok tells an old joke, a bad one but a joke, nonetheless. Sookyung just shakes her head fondly and Baekhyun groans annoyed.

When they leave, Chanyeol sits next to his boyfriend again, reaching out to link their fingers again. He has found that he doesn’t want to be without Minseok for more than he has to, and physical contact is a great way of reminding him what he still has, what he could have lost. Minseok looks at him fondly before he leans in and rests his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder.

“I want to go home,” he whispers. His breath fans over Chanyeol’s neck, tickles his skin and has goosebumps rise on his forearms. “I miss the apartment and I want my life back. I want to go back to work and see the lab and everybody again.”

Chanyeol tenses up and tries to mask it with a smile but Minseok has felt the movement and he looks up in question.

“What is it? Is something wrong with me? Is there anything the doctors didn’t tell me?”

He’s worried. He doesn’t want to be, but Chanyeol can hear the thinly veiled worry so he shakes his head and reassures his boyfriend with a squeeze of his hand.

“No, it’s not you. It’s … everybody,” he says. Minseok removes his head from Chanyeol’s shoulder to look at him better, fingers slipping from Chanyeol’s hold.

“What happened?” Chanyeol reaches out towards Minseok again, but his boyfriend withdraws a little. His eyes are determined to get the information out of Chanyeol. Chanyeol sighs.

“Junghwa has passed away and Kris was ill the same way you were. I don’t know what happened to him and I … I’m sorry, I didn’t know any of your other coworkers, so I don’t know…”

Minseok just stares at him with wide eyes. Chanyeol reaches out to link their fingers again and Minseok lets him. There is silent in the hospital room for a few seconds before Minseok speaks.

“Junghwa is …” he whispers and Chanyeol nods. The unspoken word hangs in the air.

“Because of …?” he asks and Chanyeol knows he wants to ask if the same illness that had him comatose for almost three months also killed his coworker. He doesn’t have an answer, though.

“I don’t know,” Chanyeol whispers his answer and Minseok blinks.

“You ... don’t know?”

He doesn’t believe Chanyeol, but it’s the truth. Chanyeol nods.

“I truly don’t know.”

\---

Minseok gets discharged a couple of days later. The sun is shining from a blue sky, the temperature is pleasant and there’s a breeze flowing through the streets. It’s a beautiful day in early May. The streets are full of children and teenagers getting off school, hurrying towards extra-curricular activities and academies.

Minseok had insisted on walking the short distance home, proving to himself that the hard work he put in with the physiotherapist is working. Chanyeol had been skeptical but he’s watching his boyfriend slowly make his way home and Chanyeol can barely contain how proud he is. They stop to rest often, but that doesn’t stop Minseok’s determination or Chanyeol’s love.

Sitting on a bench in front of a fenced off playground, Chanyeol laces his fingers with Minseok’s and sends him a smile. Minseok just scoffs a little.

“You’re smiling so much,” he says and Chanyeol chuckles.

“Is a man not allowed to smile when he is proud of his boyfriend?” he asks and Minseok flushes even though he shushes his boyfriend. Chanyeol doesn’t care, though. Ever since Minseok woke up, homophobia has been the last thing on his mind. The doctors and nurses in the ICU had long gotten used to his presence and their relationship and Chanyeol can’t imagine hiding anymore. The world may not be fully warmed up to the idea of two men in a romantic relationship but Chanyeol has been too close to losing Minseok to care about the world. There is more to life than hiding away his relationship with another man. Minseok shakes his head fondly.

“Sure, be happy.”

He gets up and is about to continue, but Chanyeol stays seated and their linked fingers stop Minseok from moving forward. Minseok laughs when he turns around with a raised eyebrow and a question sparkling in his eyes, watching Chanyeol still on the bench, hand outstretched to keep his fingers linked with Minseok’s.

“Marry me,” Chanyeol says. He widens his eyes at his own words, doesn’t dare believe what he has just said out loud, but he doesn’t regret the words. Minseok bursts out in laughter.

“What?” he asks, dumbfounded and confused, soundless laughter still crinkling the corner of his eyes.

“Kim Minseok, will you marry me?”

Minseok softens into a smile, finger removing the tear that’s threatening to spill from laughter and tugs on Chanyeol’s hand.

“Come on, you lovesick fool.”

Chanyeol lets Minseok pull him forward but his mind is racing.

\---

The dewy grass turns his sneakers wet as he follows his boyfriend towards the new grave. Minseok is carrying a small bouquet of yellow tulips. They weave between graves silently until they reach the one, they’re looking for. The gravestone is grey marble and the name is written in beautiful black cursive.

Minseok sinks to his knees and gently places the flowers. Chanyeol stands a few feet behind. He doesn’t want to intrude. When Minseok gets up again, he goes to embrace Chanyeol. They stand there, both of them staring at the yellow flowers on the grave, mourning a loss. Minseok feels a little guilty for surviving when his coworkers had to suffer the consequences.

He asked Sookyung for Yixing’s home address so he could pay him a visit and offer his condolences and now they’re standing in front of Junghwa’s grave. The wind is blowing gently around them, rustling the leaves on the trees. They stand there for a few minutes before Minseok looks up and nods.

Baekhyun and Sookyung meet them in a small restaurant, famous for their barbecue. Minseok is still a little affected by his visit to Junghwa’s grave, but Chanyeol holds his hand and squeezes it once in a while to reassure him. It’s okay, they’re okay. Neither of them could have done anything to save Junghwa.

Conversation slowly flows around the table and the more time they spend with their friends, the lighter the mood becomes. Minseok laughs at a stupid story Baekhyun tells about a student of his, details changed for privacy reasons, and Sookyung smiles knowingly at her husband. Chanyeol notices and gently prods her forearm with his chopsticks. She looks towards him with a glare but he’s unperturbed. Instead he wiggles his eyebrows. Sookyung rolls her eyes, but she pokes Baekhyun’s side nonetheless to get him to stop talking.

“So, uhm, we have something to tell you,” she says. She doesn’t sound nervous at all, oddly enough. Baekhyun looks towards her with twinkling eyes.

“Will you guys do us the honors of being godfathers to Baby Byun?” he asks. Minseok drops his chopsticks into kimchi. His eyes are as wide as saucers and his mouth hangs open. Chanyeol laughs.

“What?” Minseok asks and looks towards Sookyung for confirmation. Chanyeol understands, because Baekhyun is not a stranger to pranks, but he can tell from the smiles and the happiness radiating off of his best friend that this is the real deal.

“He’s right,” Sookyung says and gently grabs his hand in hers. “I’m pregnant.”

It takes a few seconds to register but when it does, Minseok rises from his seat so he can hurry around the table to hug his friend. Sookyung chuckles as she pats his hair and Baekhyun sends Chanyeol another blinding smile. The family addition is the conversation topic of the evening.

They’re sitting on the couch, heads tilted to look at the large painting. Minseok is resting against Chanyeol’s chest, the soft thump of his heart calming Minseok. There is silent around them, but it’s a comfortable silence, reminiscent of everything beautiful in the world. Chanyeol holds Minseok close, fingers absentmindedly toying with the hem of his shirt to keep him occupied.

“I love you,” whispers Chanyeol into Minseok’s hair. Minseok smiles and turns around in his hold, removing himself slightly, so he can lean closer and rest his forehead against Chanyeol’s.

“I love you too,” he answers, just as quiet. Chanyeol doesn’t let the moment pass and he leans in, capturing Minseok’s lips sweetly. There is barely any pressure in the kiss, no passionate making out. Just the two of them in the present, realizing how much life is worth and trying to convey just how much they love each other. Chanyeol is hellbent on telling Minseok how proud he is, how much he loves him, how much he can’t be without him. When they let go, there are smiles on their faces. Words unsaid are delivered between them as they look at each other.

Minseok slowly turns around and rests back against Chanyeol’s chest, hand grabbing Chanyeol’s to play with his fingers while he looks back towards the painting on the wall.

“Remember when we bought that painting?” he asks and Chanyeol grunts his reply. He leans down to hide his face in Minseok’s hair, smell the familiar scent underneath the hospital shampoo and Minseok giggles when Chanyeol’s breath tickles.

“You know,” he continues when he’s done giggling. “When we bought that painting, I couldn’t really imagine just how well it would us as a couple. I thought you were silly for saying it reminded you of us, that it resembled us. Maybe thought you were a little crazy too, I mean - it's just a painting. But looking at it now, I get it.”

Chanyeol lifts his head from Minseok’s hair and looks towards the painting.

“It has always represented us, no matter how silly or crazy you think I am,” he says. “I’m glad you stuck with me.”

Minseok chuckles.

“Me too. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Thank you for sticking with me as well.”

**BREAKING:** _Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neunghu and Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Hyunmee steps back after controversies revolving a case resulting in the death of a 24-year old woman and her 3-year old daughter. Police investigations uncovers the real cause of death and how corruption covered it up._


End file.
